Tension pneumopericardium

Figure 1. Tension pneumopericardium, a rare complication of pyogenic lung abscess, occurred in a 27-year-old white man with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Cultures of specimens obtained through a bronchoscopic sheath catheter had yielded Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Despite antibiotic treatment, the patient had spontaneous rupture of the abscess into the pericardial sac and died from a tension pneumopericardium and cardiac tamponade. The chest x-ray film in Panel A shows cavitating pneumonia in the left mid-lung field, adjacent to the cardiac silhouette. In Panel B, another chest film, air under pressure is evident in the pericardial sac, with the…