All issues > Volume 33(5); 1990

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1990;33(5):680-683. Published online May 31, 1990.

Congenital Pericardial Defect, A Report of Two Cases.

Young Sook Lee¹, Chang Youn Lee¹, Young Hwue Kim¹, Jung Yun Choi¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Seoul National University Hosptial, Seoul, Korea

Received: July 27, 1989;  Accepted: November 8, 1989.

Abstract

This report describes two confirmed cases of partial pericardial defect which presented in complete- ly different way. The first case was referred with the chief complaint of chest pain. This case showed typical chest X-Ray and echocardiographic findings. In view of frequent chest pain, this case was operated on and the defect was closed with patch. In the second case, defect was incidentally found at operation for the associated ventricular septal defect. No part of heart protruded through the defect. Apart from the findings of ventricular septal defect, there was no any other signs suggestive of pericardial defect in the second case. Congenital pericardial defect is very rare and two different types, partial and complete, of different significance have been recognized. Complete defect is known to be innocuous but partial defect is potentially lethal. Thus early recognition and proper management of partial defect is very important to prevent fatal outcome.

Keywords :Congenital pericardial defect