Constrictive pericarditis following coronary-artery bypass grafting in a patient with chronic asymptomatic pericardial disease

Constrictive pericarditis is a rare complication of open-heart surgery. We describe a patient who was found at the time of coronary artery bypass surgery to have asymptomatic pericardial thickening and subsequently developed rapidly progressive constrictive pericarditis. At operation for pericardiectomy, the bypass graft to the posterior descending coronary artery was found to be strangled by fibrous tissue while the remaining two bypass grafts were patent. Following pericardiectomy, the patient made a good recovery.