Summary

Constrictive pericarditis is typically a chronic and progressive condition characterised by debilitating chronic right heart failure and surgical pericardiectomy remains the treatment of choice. Although most cases of acute pericarditis are self-limiting, an uncommon but known complication is a transient form of constrictive pericarditis that shares the same clinical features with the chronic form but resolves without surgical intervention.

We report a case of a 29-year-old man with acute idiopathic pericarditis complicated with overt signs of constriction with complete recovery after medical treatment. The knowledge of this transient pattern of cardiac constriction complicating acute pericarditis may avoid unnecessary morbidity and mortality related to surgical procedure in a pericardium with acute inflammatory reaction.