Staphylococcal pericarditis with pyopericardium

Seven previously well patients with acute staphylococcal pericarditis and purulent pericardial effusion are described. All had a septicaemic illness in which worsening heart failure with signs of cardiac tamponade became the major problems of management. Tropical pyomyositis was probably the predisposing illness in four patients. This number of proven cases within an 18-month period suggests that staphylococcal pyopericardium is in a tropical environment probably commoner than realised.