You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Reminder of important clinical lesson
Case report
Cardiac tamponade after superior vena cava stenting
  1. Kale S Bongers1,
  2. Vaiibhav Patel2,
  3. Sarah K Gualano2 and
  4. Richard J Schildhouse3,4
  1. 1Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  2. 2Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  3. 3General Medicine, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  4. 4Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Kale S Bongers; kbongers{at}med.umich.edu

Abstract

Superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome results from the blockage of venous blood flow through the SVC, which is caused by either internal obstruction (eg, thrombus) or external compression (eg, thoracic malignancy and infection).1 While thrombus-related SVC syndrome is rising in prevalence, malignancy still accounts for the majority of cases.1 Regardless of cause, SVC syndrome is characterised by facial swelling and plethora, headache and dyspnoea.2 Although venous stenting has become standard of care for treatment of acute SVC syndrome, stent placement presents multiple risks including SVC rupture and cardiac tamponade. In these cases, a high index of suspicion and prompt action are required to avoid an often fatal outcome. Here, we present the case of a patient with cardiac tamponade and subsequent cardiac arrest after SVC stent placement.

  • adult intensive care
  • pericardial disease
  • cardiothoracic surgery
  • interventional radiology

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2020-234345

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors Patient was under the care of KSB, VP, SKG and RJS. Report was written by KSB, VP, SKG and RJS. Supervised by SKG and RJS.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.