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The diagnosis of purulent pericarditis (PP) faces several challenges at the present time.
The first of them is the epidemiology of the disease. PP is very uncommon and
requires the physician best efforts to avoid a fatal diagnostic delay. The second
challenge is the aetiology of the disease. On one hand deep changes in the bacteriological
spectra has been reported since the antibiotic drug era began. An increasing
trend of PP cases are now caused by anaerobic, gram– and fungus species in
contrast with gram+ bacteria cultured before. There is also a predominant role of
underlying conditions neither necessarily infectious nor previously diagnosed that
increase the risk for PP. On the other hand a controversy related to the most efficient
surgical drainage technique still remains. We report a case of a patient with PP
who underwent bedside ultrasound at emergency department that reduced both diagnostic
and treatment times and achieved an important aim: the patient remained in
the most adequate setting for medical assistance, the Emergency Department.
