How to treat chronic pericarditis? It turns out to be like this

Chronic pericarditis is a precursor to chronic constrictive pericarditis. This disease is very harmful to the human body. Therefore, it is very necessary for patients with chronic pericarditis to understand the treatment of chronic pericarditis. In fact, in life, the best treatment for chronic pericarditis is pericardial dissection surgery.

Chronic pericarditis refers to pericarditis that lasts for more than 3 months. Most of them are caused by excessive acute pericarditis. After treating acute pericarditis, scar adhesions and calcium deposits will be left on the pericardium. Most patients only have mild scar formation and loose or local adhesions. There is no obvious thickening of the pericardium, and it does not affect the function of the heart. This is called chronic pericarditis. All types of pericarditis will eventually turn into typical chronic constrictive pericarditis.

Chronic pericarditis is secondary to acute pericarditis, and most of the time it is not serious. Patients will feel difficulty breathing after fatigue. This is caused by the inability to increase cardiac output in the activity room. If not treated in time, a large amount of pleural effusion, ascites and pulmonary congestion will appear in the later stage. Patients may experience difficulty breathing when resting. In addition, they may also experience symptoms such as fatigue, decreased appetite, dizziness, weakness, palpitations, cough, upper abdominal pain, and edema.

Once chronic pericarditis is diagnosed, pericardial dissection surgery should be performed as soon as possible, with careful pre- and post-operative care, strict rest, and a low-salt diet. A few patients with mild jugular venous distension and peripheral edema can survive long term with diet control and diuretics. If the patient already has heart failure, he or she should take digitalis drugs. If the disease is delayed for too long, the patient's myocardium will atrophy and undergo fibrosis, affecting the effectiveness of the surgery.

If the patient has tuberculous pericarditis, he or she needs to rest during exercise before considering surgery. Hasty surgery may cause the spread of tuberculosis. Patients with pericardial stenosis often have blood clots in the right atrium, which may partially affect the function of the tricuspid valve, so care must be taken to remove the blood clots during surgery. Chronic exudative pericarditis can be treated symptomatically if the cause is known.

After the operation, if the patient does not have cardiovascular disease, the doctor can observe and follow up, but for patients with symptoms or history of heart failure, appropriate treatment and close monitoring are required. If the patient develops an infection, pericardial drainage is required.