A 17-year-old patient suffered multiple trauma from a motor vehicle accident that involved blunt chest trauma. During the initial hospitalization and laparotomy for abdominal injuries, the cardiac silhouette remained normal on chest roentgenogram and there were no signs of pericardial tamponade. He went home and returned 2 weeks later with a 3 to 4-day history of increasing dyspnea and findings of cardiac tamponade. A loculated, blood-filled mass was found by echocardiography and at surgery, compressing the right heart. This type of delayed pericardial tamponade after blunt trauma has not previously been described.
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