What is cardiac tamponade and how does it cause the observed symptoms.?

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A gang member was stabbed in the chest during a street fight. He was cyanotic and unconscious from lack of blood delivery to the brain. The diagnosis was cardiac tamponade. What is cardiac tamponade and how does it cause the observed symptoms.
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).  (+ info)

What is the difference between cardiac tamponade and pericardial friction rub.?

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How do they relate to the amount of pericardial fluid?
these are two different entities, the former is a clinical diagnosis, the later a physical exam finding.

in humans, the heart is encased within a membranous sac called the pericardial sac which is lined with <50cc of fluid to allow for a smooth movement of the heart within the sac.

fluid or blood can accumulate within this sac in a number of conditions like:
1) pericarditis (inflammation of the pericardium) due to either viruses, bacterial, tuberculous, tumors, etc.
2) trauma
3) ventricular free wall rupture (the ventricle, or the heart's main pumping chamber ruptures due to a heart attack)

cardiac tamponade results when excessive fluid in the pericardial sac leads to elevated pericardial pressures leading to impaired return of blood from the rest of the body to the right side of the heart. This leads to a profound hypotension.

this condition can be fatal if not recognized earlier.

treatment involves aspiration of the fluid to improve return of blood to the right side of the heart. if fluid reaccumulates rapidly, surgeons can insert a larger catheter or remove a large piece of pericardial tissue to allow drainage of fluid.

pericardial friction rub on the other hand is a cardiac auscultatory finding. you can hear a pericardial friction rub in cases of pericardial inflammation and fibrosis. the sound is an irregular sound similar to 2 pieces of leather rubbing each other.  (+ info)

Cardiac tamponade restricts the filling and stroke volume of the right side of the heart before the left. Why?

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Why is this?
Think hemodynamics.
There is a lower diastolic pressure in the right side than in the left, that's why it is affected first.
As the increased pressure in the pericardial sac increases, the heart is compressed... more so the right side due to lower pressures. This causes less blood volume returned, which increases the venous pressure, causing the heart to not be filled properly therefore reducing stroke volume and cardiac output.
Remember that cardiac tamponade is a diagnosis, some people forget that fact.  (+ info)

What is CARDIAC TAMPONADE and what causes it?

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Cardiac tamponade, also known as pericardial tamponade, is an emergency condition in which fluid accumulates in the pericardium (the sac in which the heart is enclosed). If the fluid significantly elevates the pressure on the heart it will prevent the heart's ventricles from filling properly. This in turn leads to a low stroke volume. The end result is ineffective pumping of blood, shock, and often death.

Causes:

Cardiac tamponade occurs when the pericardial space fills up with fluid faster than the pericardial sac can stretch. If the amount of fluid increases slowly (such as in hypothyroidism) the pericardial sac can expand to contain a liter or more of fluid prior to tamponade occurring. If the fluid occurs rapidly (as may occur after trauma or myocardial rupture) as little as 100 ml can cause tamponade.

Causes of increased pericardial effusion include hypothyroidism, physical trauma (either penetrating trauma involving the pericardium or blunt chest trauma), pericarditis (inflammation of the pericardium), iatrogenic trauma (during an invasive procedure), and myocardial rupture.

Cardiac tamponade is caused by a large or uncontrolled pericardial effusion, i.e. the buildup of fluid inside the pericardium. This commonly occurs as a result of chest trauma (both blunt and penetrating), but can also be caused by myocardial rupture, cancer, uraemia, pericarditis, or cardiac surgery, and rarely occurs during aortic dissection, or whilst the patient is taking anticoagulant therapy. The effusion can occur rapidly (as in the case of trauma or myocardial rupture), or over a more gradual period of time (as in cancer). The fluid involved is often blood, but pus is also found in some circumstances.

Myocardial rupture is a somewhat uncommon cause of pericardial tamponade. It typically happens in the subacute setting after a myocardial infarction (heart attack), in which the infarcted muscle of the heart thins out and tears. Myocardial rupture is more likely to happen in elderly individuals without any previous cardiac history who suffer from their first heart attack and are not revascularized either with thrombolytic therapy or with percutaneous coronary intervention or with coronary artery bypass graft surgery  (+ info)

what is cardiac tamponade cholesistisis?

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please answer it....thank you.
Cardiac tamponade, also known as pericardial tamponade, is a medical emergency condition in which fluid accumulates in the pericardium (the sac in which the heart is enclosed). The elevated pericardial pressure puts significant pressure on the heart, causing a decrease in diastolic filling of the ventricles, and hence in stroke volume. The end result is ineffective pumping of blood, shock and often death.
I think you mean to spell it Cholecystitis instead of Cholesistisis if that's the case this is: inflammation of the gall bladder  (+ info)

how is cardiac tamponade cholesistisis spread?

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please answer it...
cardiac tamponade and cholecystitis are two unrelated conditions, and neither are contagious.  (+ info)

Mechanism of cardiac tamponade...?

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... say in a stab wound. i read this case where a patient with a stab wound to the heart died from cardiac tamponade. i'm not sure i understood what happened. how did the blood accumulate within the percardium? wouldn't it leak from the point of entry?

is it possible for a blood clot in the heart to cause cardiac tamponade, and if so then how?

any input will be greatly appreciated. :D
The heart has different layer the pericardium, myocardium and endocardium. Sometimes the blood can be trapped between the different layers, eventually a clot forms or fluid remains between the layers of the heart. This then effects the contractile ability of the heart, which leads to decreased cardiac output, low blood pressure, etc. Cardiac tamponade can be acute (developing suddenly such as after cardiac surgery) or chronic (developing over weeks due to surgery, chemo, inflammation). It can be diagnosed by an echocardiogram easily. Once diagnosed if it causing symptoms it can be relieved by doing a "pericardial window" the fluid or clot around the heart is drained. This takes minutes and usually a drain or chest tube is left in place. Once the compressive force caused by the clot or fluid is removed the tamponade is relieved and the heart pumps without any hindrance. Hope this helps.  (+ info)

What causes cardiac tamponade?

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most common cause of cardiac tamponade:
1-metastatic malignancy
2-viral pericardaitis
3-uremia
4-trauma  (+ info)

How painful can a heart emergency (heart attack, pulmonary embolism, cardiac tamponade, etc) be?

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What is the most painful that heart emergencies (like a heart attack, pulmonary embolism, cardiac tamponade, etc) can be?

I'm curious what the maximum possible pain that heart emergencies can cause, in relation to other painful stimuli (for example, it hurts less than X but more than Y, or if X was 1 and Y was 10, it would be a 5)

I'm not asking this rudely, but please, no poetic and abstract references like "It's like 1000 knives of fire". Unless the pain of a heart emergency really is hellishly beyond any other pain normally experienced. (and that would suck muchly)

Thank you in advance for your input, and my sympathies to anyone who's actually suffered a heart emergency.
The most severe pains that humans experience are said to be childbirth,renal colic and heart attack,in no particular order.  (+ info)

What to do when nasal tamponade comes out?

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I had septoplasty yesterday and a tamponade was placed inside that now is sticking out. What should I do?
I cannot push it back in
I am Dr Prateek Nayak . I am a Consultant in ENT [Ear Nose Throat] and Head and Neck Surgery practising in Bangalore ,India.
DO NOT try to push it back in . since you have just had a surgery the tissues will be raw and vulnerable so DO NOT push it back in.
If you have any excess bleeding it is best to contact your ENT specialist.
See if you have too much blood coming out from your throat [sometimes the blood can trickle down to throat from back of the nose]
When has your ENT surgeon called you for removal of the nasal pack/ tamponade?
If quite a significant part of the naslpack is sticking out your doctor may have to trim it.
Still anxious do contact the ENT specialist who operated on you as I am sure he or she will help you in such situations.
http://my.opera.com/prateeknayak/blog/  (+ info)

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