Second Look Day - Cardiac Tamponade Lecture

Potential Spaces and Cardiac Tamponade

• Potential Space versus filled space
  • Glove and golf ball demonstration
  • Function - reduce friction and provide mobility
• Examples of potential spaces - "Know what you know when you know something."
  • Trochanteric bursa - muscle fibers sliding over bone
  • Subacromial bursa - muscle tendon sliding between bones
  • Peritoneal cavity - intestinal mobility
  • Synovial joint cavity - bony articulations
  • The downside - spread of infection (YouTube video showing home treatment for knee effusion)
• Drawing of heart and pericardium
  • Pericardial sac defined by fibrous pericardium
  • Fibrous pericardium is non-distensible
  • Pericardial cavity (potential space) defined by serous pericardium
• Cardiac tamponade (YouTube video English Version)
  • Pericardial space fills with fluid or pus
  • Pressure prevents filling of heart chambers during diastole

Events that may lead to cardiac tamponade

• Myocardial infarction
• Sagittal drawing showing the relationship of the retropharyngeal space to the pericardial space
• Never answer the door with a toothbrush in your mouth; let alone a pencil in your mouth
• Tonsilitis and swallowed fish bones
• Apical root infection of lower molars, sudden relief - not good, population based medical care in under-served communities

Learning Objectives

• Know the function of potential spaces at different anatomical regions.
• Relate potential spaces to the spread of infection.
• Cite the clinical manifestations of potential spaces that become filled spaces.