Solitary pericardial hydatid cyst encompassing the heart.

A 56-year old lady presented with mild chest pain. The echocar-diography revealed gross pericardial effusion. Repeated percu-taneous aspirations were performed. Ultimately, computed tomography helped in reaching the diagnosis of pericardial hydatid disease (Fig. 1A). On operating, a single infected cyst was found encompassing the heart with multiple daughter cysts (Figs 1B and 2A–C). Figure 1: (A) Multiple daughter cysts in the pericardium surrounding the heart. (B) The cyst entered when the pericardium was opened, draining the infected cyst fluid. Figure 2: (A) Daughter cysts being taken out of the pericardial cavity. (B) Pericyst being separated from the epicardial fat. (C) Pericyst being separated from the pericardium.