Pericardial effusion (PE) after cardiac surgery can be life threatening without timely detection, and the optimal screening method is unknown. We sought to evaluate the role of a surveillance echocardiogram on postoperative day 10 (± 2), determine the incidence of postoperative PE, and identify risk factors. We conducted a retrospective cohort study including all pediatric patients who underwent open heart surgery at a single institution over a 7-month period. To identify risk factors for PE, medical records of patients with PE detected within 6 weeks after surgery (cases) were compared with patients without PE (controls). Of 203 patients, 52 (26%) had PE within 6 weeks; 42 (81%) were trivial-small and 10 (19%) were moderate-large. Twenty-nine (56%) were first detected within 7 days post-operatively, including all cases developing cardiac tamponade (n = 3). An echocardiogram was done 10 (± 2) days post-operatively in 41/52 cases, of which 12/41 (29%) did not have a PE at this time, 24/41 (59%) had a trivial-small PE, and 5/41(12%) had a moderate-large PE; 2 of the latter had no prior detected PE. Closure of an atrial septal defect had the highest incidence of PE (42%). PE cases were associated with postoperative nasopharyngeal detection of a respiratory virus (OR 3.8, p = 0.03). In conclusion, the majority of PE cases were detected within 7 days post-operatively, including all cases subsequently developing cardiac tamponade. Day 10 echocardiography infrequently detected a moderate or large effusion that had previously gone undiagnosed. A positive perioperative nasopharyngeal aspirate for a respiratory virus was associated with postoperative PE.
Keywords: Congenital heart disease; Congenital heart surgery; Pediatrics; Pericardial effusion; Postpericardiotomy syndrome.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.