Summary

Pericardial effusion can develop during any stage of pericarditis, and small effusions that appear rapidly can cause cardiac tamponade. Pyopericardium is a rare aetiology for tamponade. This is a case of an elderly diabetic lady, on steroid therapy for immune thrombocytopenia, who presented with fever and acute dyspnoea. She developed cardiac tamponade due to pyopericardium with Staphylococcus as the causative organism. Staphylococcus pyopericardium, in the absence of a primary focus of infection, progressing to tamponade is an uncommon scenario.