Introduction:

Most penetrating cardiac trauma is the result of either gunshot injuries or stab wounds [13]. In 55-69% of patients presenting with stab wounds, cardiac tamponade develops [1][11].Cardiac Tamponade is a life-threatening, slow or rapid compression of the heart due to the pericardial accumulation of fluid, pus, blood, clots, or gas, as a result of effusion, trauma, or rupture of the heart. The primary abnormality is rapid or slow compression of all cardiac chambers as a result of increasing intrapericardial pressure which prevents atrial and ventricular filling, suppressing cardiac output and in turn, precipitating a fall in systemic blood pressure [2]. Stab wounds produce a small tear in the pericardium itself which seals off, resulting in acute cardiac tamponade in 80-90% of cases [4]. Due to its postero-lateral position, penetrating injuries of the left ventricle are rare as compared to the right ventricle [5] [12]. Stab wounds to the heart can serve to be fatal and in Karachi, 7.6% of deaths from stab wounds involved the heart [9]. Here we present a case where a 24 year old male presenting with a history of stab wound developing cardiac tamponade. …show more content…
In Karachi, most of the victims of the death from stab wounds tend to be male, being 4 times greater in number than females [9]. Likewise, 59.3% of victims of stab wounds are young people belonging to the age group of 20-39 years [9].

Cardiac tamponade can arise for a wide variety of causes which can be broadly classified into haemhorragic, serous or sero-sanguinous and purulent. Haemhorrhagic causes, relevant to our case, include an acute accumulation of pericardial fluid from a ruptured myocardium following myocardial infarction or blunt penetrating cardiac trauma