Successful Treatment of Severe Right-Sided Heart Failure Due to Postoperative Constrictive Pericarditis With Tolvaptan.

The prognosis of inoperative constrictive pericarditis is poor due to subsequent severe right-sided heart failure that is refractory to conventional medical treatment. This case report describes the long-term treatment with tolvaptan, a new selective vasopression V2-receptor antagonist, was remarkably effective for inoperative constrictive pericarditis. Despite that tolvaptan was approved for the treatment of hyponatremia in Europe and the United States, the indications and treatment duration of it are not yet well established clinically. We propose that tolvaptan could offer an alternative option for the treatment of medically refractory severe right-sided heart failure such as constrictive pericarditis.