You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Unusual association of diseases/symptoms
Case report
Left ventricular rupture: a rare complication and an unusual presentation
  1. Antony Mathew1,
  2. Eleanor Berry1,
  3. Malini Tirou1 and
  4. Pankaj Kumar2
  1. 1Emergency Department, Withybush General Hospital, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, UK
  2. 2Cardiac Centre, Morriston Hospital, Swansea, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Antony Mathew; antonymat{at}aol.com

Abstract

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a relatively common medical condition in the community. A rare complication of acute MI is left ventricular rupture (LV) rupture. This usually follows a transmural infarct. The incidence of this is 2%–4% and this usually happens within 3–7 days of MI. The anterolateral wall is involved in the majority of cases. Atypical presentations can occur several weeks after the initial event. Symptoms may mimic gastrointestinal disorder. The prognosis of this condition is very grim. However, with appropriate treatment, they can make an excellent recovery. The definitive treatment for this is surgical repair. We present the case of a 70-year-old man who had LV rupture and his clinical journey.

  • emergency medicine
  • resuscitation

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2019-231867

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Contributors AM: managed the patient, wrote the article. EB: managed the patient, proof read. MT: managed the patient, proof read. PK: patient management, collection of information, proof read.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.