[Constrictive pericarditis in early infancy (author's transl)].

The unusual course of illness involving an 8-week old infant is described, which, after a staphylococcic sepsis with subsequent purulent pericarditis, developed the typical clinical symptoms of a constrictive pericarditis within a 12-day-period. There is only one similar case reported on in medical literature, involving an 8-month old infant.--Despite an immediate operation (anterior pericardectomy) the infant died 3 days later.