Table 1.
Characteristics of study population.
Table 2.
Echocardiographic and laboratory characteristics.
Fig 1.
Development and treatment of cardiac tamponade according to post-operative 5-day pericardial effusion: Pericardial effusion was measured median 5-day after valvular surgery.
Early cardiac tamponade occurred within 30 days after surgery. Delayed tamponade was defined when it occurred 30days after surgery. Cardiac tamponade did not occur in patients with moderate PE at 5-day trans-thoracic echocardiography.
Table 3.
Factors associated with postoperative cardiac tamponade.
Fig 2.
Kaplan-Meier curve for cardiac tamponade-free survival between groups with and without risk factors (A: infective endocarditis, B: mechanical valve replacement, C: MAZE operation, D: Any amount of pericardial effusion on the first postoperative echocardiography): Infective endocarditis, mechanical valve replacement, and any amount of PE at the first postoperative TTE were associated with decreased cardiac tamponade-free survival.
Concomitant MAZE procedure showed marginal statistical significance (P = 0.052) in cardiac tamponade-free survival, and delayed cardiac tamponade also occurred even after 30 days after surgery.