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Originally Posted by gonadman
The echocardiogram is the test of choice for evaluating pericardial effusion. A significant bleed would easily have been picked up by this test at discharge- that's why they do it. Your father may have been relatively asymptomatic until enough blood had built up to restrict the heart contractions, however, I find it hard to believe there was not enough pericardial blood to detect on echo three days post cath. You might want to ask your father's cardiologist to obtain a copy of the echo report for you.
With that being said, myocardial perforation is a known, although rare, complication of cardiac catherization. Even the best cardiologists will unfortunately experience a small percentage of complications. That knowledge doesn't help you or your dad at all, but the possibility of a complication like that should have been explained to your dad before the procedure.
My opinions only. I wish your father the best in his recovery.
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Thank you very much!
Although we weren't really informed of the risks beforehand, I attribute that to it being an emergency situation.
The fact that he had myocardial perforation doesn't really bother me - it just seems like they should have caught it before he was discharged. He was asymptamatic prior to and even for a while after he was discharged - but like you said, I find it difficult to believe that they couldn't see the buildup of fluid three days after the cath, only to have him rushed back in less than 24 hours later because there was so much it was restricting his heart palpatations....
I already have the written reports as well as video, and am just hoping someone with a bit of expertise can take a look at them...