TY - JOUR TI - AIDS-related cardiac tamponade: Is surgical drainage justified? AU - Dosios, TJ AU - Theakos, NP AU - Angouras, DC AU - Katsarou, OI and AU - Asimacopoulos, PJ JO - The Annals of Thoracic Surgery PY - 2004 VL - 78 TODO - 3 SP - 1084-1085 PB - EXCERPTA MEDICA INC-ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC SN - 0003-4975, 1552-6259 TODO - 10.1016/S0003-4975(03)01374-2 TODO - null TODO - In order to evaluate the usefulness of surgical drainage in the treatment of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related cardiac tamponade, we reviewed our experience with subxiphoid pericardiostomy on 5 consequent such patients. One patient died in the immediate postoperative period and the remaining 4 died within 21 weeks after the operation. Similar results have been reported by other authors who found that surgical drainage has no diagnostic or therapeutic benefit over pericardiocentesis in this particular group of patients. Based on our limited experience and the data of the literature, we feel that surgical drainage cannot be justified as the primary method of treatment of AIDS-related cardiac tamponade. (C) 2004 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. ER -