What is it about?
This is a case report and discussion of a 70-year-old gentleman who had rupture of the left chamber of heart following a heart attack. The incidence of this is 2%–4% and this usually happens within 3–7 days of a heart attack. Symptoms may mimic conditions associated with the stomach. The definitive treatment for this is surgical repair. The outlook of this condition is very grim. However, with appropriate treatment, they can make a full recovery
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Why is it important?
Normally this type of rupture happens early after a heart attack. Our patient had this rupture after 53 days. He suffered a cardiac arrest and had emergency surgery done. The general mortality rate from this condition is 82%. Our patient had multiple serious complications. However, he slowly got better and in the end, he made a full recovery. This improves the understanding of this condition and its management.
Perspectives
This report highlights the tenacity of our patient. He had the most difficult set of complications ever imaginable. He had rupture of left chamber of the heart. This caused blood to collect around his heart and stopped it from working properly. Once the blood was aspirated he became much better. While waiting for a definitive surgery he went into cardiac arrest. He had CPR and further resuscitation and he was rushed to the operating theatre. After repairing the defect in his heart, he was admitted in the Intensive Therapy Unit. He had multiple significant complications. He had kidney failure, fluid around the lungs, bleeding from the stomach to name a few. His chest had to be reopened twice more to deal with complications. Any of these could have killed anybody. But he survived each of this one by one and fully recovered.
Antony Mathew
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Left ventricular rupture: a rare complication and an unusual presentation, BMJ Case Reports, February 2020, BMJ,
DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2019-231867.
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