Hemophilus influenzae b pericarditis in children
Echeverria, P.; Smith, E.W.; Ingram, D.; Sade, R.M.; Gardner, P.
Pediatrics 56(5): 808-818
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0031-4005 PMID: 1081672 Document Number: 87024
Recent experience in the diagnosis and management of Hemophilus influenzae b pericarditis is described in five children. Anterior pericardectomy appears to be the preferred method of surgical drainage because it was associated with a shorter hospitalization than pericardiocentesis or closed or open pericardotomy and removed the risk of recurrent cardiac tamponade and constrictive pericarditis. Countercurrent immunoelectrophoresis of sera and pericardial fluid was used to rapidly identify the etiology of pericarditis in four of four patients tested. The observation that three children appeared to develop pericarditis in the absence of a contiguous infectious focus suggests that bacteremic seeding of the pericardium may be important in the pathogenesis of this disease.