Purulent pericarditis with cardiac tamponade caused by anaerobic agents.

Purulent pericarditis is a rare disease associated with high mortality, even with appropriate antibiotic therapy. The authors report the case of a patient with purulent pericarditis with no identifiable primary source that presented clinically as cardiac tamponade. The patient required emergency pericardiocentesis and surgical pericardiectomy due to persisting signs of tamponade. Microbiology cultures isolated anaerobic agents of Fusobacterium spp., Corynebacterium spp. and Peptostreptococcus. The authors review the etiology and treatment of this entity and its main complication, the development of constrictive pericarditis.