A Clearer View of Effusive–Constrictive Pericarditis

In the 1920s and 1930s, when pericardiectomy first became an established therapy for constrictive pericarditis, surgeons recognized the condition in which pericardial effusion coexists with a visceral constrictive pericarditis (or constrictive epicarditis) (see Figure). In 1971, clinical and hemodynamic features were described that allowed the diagnosis to be made before an operation or autopsy had been performed. Since that time, individual cases have been reported nearly every year. Many of these cases, including at least one reported in the Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital,1 occurred in the United States. Others have been reported in at least 26 countries . . .