Staphylococcus aureus pericardial abscess presenting as a localized bulge of the heart contour.

Purulent pericarditis usually presents as an acute illness with diffuse involvement of the whole pericardium, but can rarely present as a localized effusion. Here, we present a patient with a pericardial abscess caused by Staphylococcus aureus. After surgical drainage of the abscess, the patient made a good recovery. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of a pericardial abscess presenting as a localized bulge of the heart contour on the chest X-ray. 2010 Published by European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.