[Surgical treatment for chronic constrictive pericarditis through a combined median sternotomy and left anterolateral thoracotomy].

A 61-year-old and a 64-year-old male patients with chronic calcified constrictive pericarditis underwent pericardiectomy through a combined midsternotomy and anterolateral thoracotomy. X-ray films and CT scans of the chests demonstrated prominent calcification of the pericardium. At cardiac catheterization, the right atrial and ventricular enddiastolic pressures were elevated and the typical dip and plateau pressure curves were found in the right ventricle. A combined midsternotomy and left anterolateral thoracotomy gave a good operative view for the surgery. The post-operative course was uneventful in both patients. This combined approach has greater ease of decorticating the lateral to posterior surfaces of the left ventricle than a simple conventional approach.