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Constrictive pericarditis is a disabling disease of the heart, which causes cardiac diastolic dysfunction. We present a case of a 44-year-old gentleman with a history of blunt chest trauma who presented with constrictive pericarditis with right-sided heart failure. Imaging studies revealed a calcified pericardium. He underwent an uneventful pericardiectomy. Calcification is common yet rare if it involves the pericardium. It normally occurs following fibrosis and adhesion which are associated with the chronicity of the disease, hence creating more challenge to the operating surgeon in the pericardiectomy procedure.

Introduction: Recurrent pleural effusion secondary to advanced malignant diseases can lead to poor quality of life, recurrent hospital stays and increased hospital costs, which has yet to be extensively explored. Aim: To compare the effectiveness of erythromycin and bleomycin in producing pleurodesis in rabbits and to determine the influence of different analgesic drugs namely tramadol sodium and parecoxib sodium intramuscular on experimental pleurodesis induced by erythromycin or bleomycin intrapleural on the aforementioned rabbits. Material and methods: This was an experimental animal pilot study involving 28 white New Zealand rabbits which were divided into 4 groups of 7 specimens. They received different agents as follow: group A (erythromycin and parecoxib sodium), B (erythromycin and tramadol sodium), C (bleomycin and parecoxib sodium), and D (bleomycin and tramadol sodium) at the right hemithorax. The control was marked at the contralateral left hemithorax. After 30 days the rabbits were euthanized to allow for evaluation of macroscopic and microscopic pleural and parenchymal adhesions by a blinded respective pathologist. Results and discussion: The degree of pleurodesis induced by the intrapleural injection of erythromycin indicated that it was superior to bleomycin as a sclerosing agent in the rabbit sample (P = 0.003). The concomitant use of analgesics revealed that tramadol sodium reduces the degree of pleurodesis to a greater extent than parecoxib sodium (P = 0.009). Conclusions: The use of intrapleural erythromycin as a potent agent of chemical pleurodesis that is insensitive to the concomitant analgesic effect of parecoxib sodium has important clinical implications in relation to the effectiveness of chemical pleurodesis as a procedure.

A thymectomy is considered effective for patients with myasthenia gravis (MG). Although a few studies have described the role of a thymectomy in the treatment of MG in Asians countries, there are no published data on the application of this surgical approach for MG in Malaysia. We aimed to describe the clinical outcomes of MG patients who underwent a thymectomy and the factors affecting these outcomes.This was a retrospective study involving 16 patients with MG who underwent a thymectomy at the Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) from January 2002 until December 2012, with a follow-up period ranging from 3-120 months.The study consisted of 16 patients aged 22-78 years, 10 of whom were males. The overall remission/improvement rate was 87.5%, and the rate of clinical outcomes classified as unchanged/worsened was 12.5%. Thymomamatous or non-thymomamatous MG, histology features, Osserman stage and the duration of follow-up were not significant prognostic factors. Post-operative mortality was 6.2% (1 of 16 patients died of septic shock).A thymectomy seems to be an effective treatment for MG, with low surgical morbidity. Patients with a lower Osserman stage and those with/without thymomas had favourable outcomes.