Chronic Constrictive Pericarditis in Association with End-Stage Renal Disease

Abstract EN

Pericardial involvement in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is manifested most commonly as acute uremic or dialysis pericarditis and infrequently as chronic constrictive pericarditis (CCP).

We report a 27-year-old patient with a history of uncontrolled hypertension, end-stage-renal disease on hemodialysis, who presented with recurrent ascites, dyspnea, and hypotension.

After diagnosis with CCP, a partial pericardiectomy was performed; however, the patient did not improve and a salvage total pericardiectomy soon followed.

He continued to decompensate and expired following a terminal extubation.

No definitive cause of constrictive pericarditis was found.

Nonetheless, we surmise it may have developed secondary to his end-stage renal disease.

A literature review revealed end-stage kidney disease as a relatively uncommon cause of CCP; only a few other such associations have thus far been reported.