[A case of postcardiac injury syndrome with repeated pleuritis after blunt chest trauma].

A 59-year-old man suffered blunt injury to the left chest during a fall in August 2004. He had 5 repeated episodes of back and left chest pain in three years since August 2005. Since these symptoms were accompanied by left pleural effusion and serum inflammatory reaction, the tentative diagnosis was pleuritis. Although examinations of pleural effusion showed exudation with marked augmentation of inflammatory cells, there were no findings that suggested the cause of repetitive pleuritis. All symptoms were relieved within one or two weeks following administration of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. Surgical thoracoscopy was carried out to investigate the cause of repeated pleuritis, and an acquired deficit of the left pericardium was noted. We considered this case to be postcardiac injury syndrome causing repeated pleuritis following blunt chest injury.