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Acupuncture is gaining popularity in Denmark. Needle insertion in the chest area is associated with the risk of serious adverse events. In Denmark, a law has been passed requiring formal education if a practitioner wishes to perform acupuncture in the chest area. In this case report a novice inflicted a right-sided pneumothorax upon himself by using acupuncture in the upper chest area with needles obtained over the internet.

The clinical presentation of cardiac tamponade is difficult to distinguish from other causes of shock. Pericardial fluid is easy to visualize with cardiac ultrasound and a key sign of overt cardiac tamponade is the compression of right side cavities. We present two cases in which cardiac tamponade was present, but where compression of cardiac cavities could not be demon-strated with transthoracic cardiac ultrasound. This emphasizes that cardiac tamponade is still a clinical diagnosis.

A 57-year old male underwent elective aortic valve replacement. The immediate post-operative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged with the lowest possible score on a newly implemented scale for early detection of critical illness. The following day he was readmitted with dyspnoea. The critical illness score was still low despite ultrasonic demonstration of a large pericardial effusion requiring drainage. We are concerned that the widely adopted critical illness scale is not sufficiently sensitive for cardiac surgery patients and advocate the use of point-of-care ultrasound.