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Transdiaphragmatic drainage of pericardial effusion with severe pericardial adhesions
1Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Heart Institute of Japan, Tokyo Women's Medical College, Japan.
The Annals of Thoracic Surgery
|October 1, 1996
Abstract:
We describe a method to perform successful drainage of pericardial effusion by incising the diaphragm via the peritoneal cavity assisted by transesophageal echocardiography. This transdiaphragmatic approach is a remarkably simple and useful method for pericardial drainage when the conventional transsubxiphoid approach is difficult and dangerous because of intractable adhesions between the heart and the pericardium.