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Cardiac tamponade - Overview

Alternative Names

Tamponade; Pericardial tamponade

Definition of Cardiac tamponade:

Cardiac tamponade is the compression of the heart that occurs when blood or fluid builds up in the space between the myocardium (the muscle of the heart) and the pericardium (the outer covering sac of the heart).

Causes, incidence, and risk factors:

In this condition, blood or fluid collects within the pericardium. This prevents the ventricles from expanding fully. They cannot fill enough or pump blood.

Cardiac tamponade can occur due to:

Dissecting aortic aneurysm (thoracic)
End-stage lung cancer
Heart attack (acute MI)
Heart surgery
Pericarditis caused by bacterial or viral infections
Wounds to the heart

Other potential causes include:

Heart tumors
Hypothyroidism
Kidney failure
Radiation therapy to the chest
Recent invasive heart procedures
Recent open heart surgery
Systemic lupus erythematosus

Cardiac tamponade occurs in approximately 2 out of 10,000 people.

Heart, front view

Pericardium

Cardiac tamponade

Reviewed last on: 5/15/2008
Robert A. Cowles, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

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