Transient postoperative pericardial constriction in a child.

Constrictive pericarditis has been defined classically as a progressive condition, characterized by pericardial fibrosis, with or without calcification, which results in chronic refractory congestive heart failure and for witch pericardiectomy is often required. In the last decades there have been reports describing a transient form of constrictive pericarditis, which resolves without surgical therapy. This "fibroelastic form" would represent the acute or subacute phase of constriction. In many patients, pericardial inflammation continues and pericardial fibrosis and calcification develop, leading to a chronic and rigid constrictive pericarditis. However, in some patients, pericardial inflammation resolves without progressing to chronic constrictive pericarditis. We report a 7 year old boy, who developed clinical and echocardiographical findings of pericardial constriction 5 weeks after a cardiac surgery, which resolved with steroid therapy.