Rupture of the Coronary Sinus with Hemopericardium. a Rare Complication of Coronary Arteriovenous Fistula.

MANY excellent reviews of coronary arteriovenous fistulas have recently appeared in the literature.1 2 In the majority of these fatal cases, death was attributed to congestive heart failure. Rupture of the eoronary sinus as a coinplication of a coronary arteriovenous fistula has not, to our knowledge, been reported. The present case is thought to be unique in that the fistula was accompanied by thrombosis of a greatly dilated coronary sinus, with perforation of the overlying sinus wall produeing tamponade and death.