A 73-year-old diabetic, hypertensive man sustained acute inferolateral wall myocardial infarction 2 days before a syncopal episode, and he was resuscitated on the way to the hospital and during the preoperative examination. An extensive tear of the left posterolateral pericardium with massive left hemothorax and left ventricular free wall rupture with pulsatile bleeding were found during surgery. Iatrogenic pericardial tear due to vigorous cardiac massage could temporarily relieve the pericardial tamponade due to the postinfarction ventricular rupture and allowed the timely surgery to be conducted.
2010 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.