Pericardial Effusion

Pericardial effusion is a buildup of fluid in the space around your heart. It can happen for many reasons, like infections, injuries or other medical conditions. If the buildup is severe or happens quickly, it can compress your heart and cause a life-threatening medical emergency.

When a pericardial effusion happens slowly, your pericardium (the sac around your heart) has time to stretch and make room for the extra fluid. When it happens quickly, your pericardium doesn’t have time to stretch. The fluid buildup puts more and more pressure on your heart. This leaves your heart’s chambers without room to expand and fill up. Because of this, your heart pumps less blood, depriving your organs of blood flow.

An easy way to see how pericardial effusion affects your heart is by trying to blow up a balloon inside of a plastic bottle. In this example, your heart is the balloon and the bottle is the pericardium. When the bottle is empty, there’s more space for the balloon to inflate. If you add water to the bottle, there’s less space and you can’t blow up the balloon as much. If you keep filling the bottle, eventually, you can’t blow up the balloon at all.

How common is pericardial effusion?

Pericardial effusion is a relatively common condition. Because it can happen for a wide range of reasons, it can happen to people of any age or background.