Congenital defects of the pericardium are considered rare. Until 1979 , the reported cases were only about 200.1 Total absence of the left pericardium is the most common defect2 and less common is a partial defect of the left pericardium. Other types, i.e. isolated right-sided defects, total pericardial absence and diaphragmatic pericardial defects are very rare.3 Before the last decade, t...

Between July 1968 and December 1975, 821 patients underwent open heart operations. In 596 cases the pericardium was left open and in 225 the pericardium was closed. Forty-one patients in the open pericardium group required reoperation and 23 of these had tamponade. Four patients in the closed pericardium group had reoperation but there was not a single case of tamponade. In most cases that requ...

Freeze-drying and gamma irradiation are the techniques widely use in tissue banking for preservation and sterilization of tissue grafts respectively. However, the effect of these techniques on biomechanical properties of bovine pericardium is poorly known. A total of 300 strips of bovine pericardium each measured 4 cm 1 cm were used in this study to evaluate the effect of freeze-drying on biome...

The significance of the intact pericardium for cardiac performance was examined in 18 open-chest dogs. Myocardial chord lengths (MCL) in the right and left ventricle were measured simultaneously by ultrasonic crystals implanted in the myocardium of the anterior walls. In 14 dogs, the ultrasonic elements were inserted into the myocardium through needle openings in the pericardium (intact pericar...

Whereas most experiments on the mechanical function of the pericardium have been performed on dogs, very little is known about the applicability of those data to humans. To examine the tensile viscoelastic properties of fresh human pericardium, we have used the methods from our previous study of canine pericardium. Although the mechanical responses of canine and human pericardium were qualitati...

primary malignant neoplasms of the pericardium are rare and are predominantly mesotheliomas, followed by benign localized fibrous mesothelioma, malignant fibrosarcoma, angiosarcoma and benign and malignant teratomas. 1 this article concerns an atypical presentation of this malignant tumor with symptoms and signs of pericardial effusion. this unusual feature was complete encasement of the heart ...

introduction the pericardial agenesis is a rare congenital anomaly. classified as partial or total being asymptomatic in most cases, but some patients are at risk for serious complications and death, and these have indication for surgical treatment. case presentation this paper describes the case of a 21 year old patient, with atypical precordial pain, diagnosed with agenesis of the left perica...

We report a case of two babies with absence of pericardium and patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). The absence of pericardium was found coincidentally during PDA ligation. The PDA was successfully ligated but the pericardium was not reconstructed. Postoperatively, the agenesis of the pericardium did not interfere with cardiac function.