Abstract
Introduction: The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) III-J system has been used to predict mortality in hospitalized ICU patients. Patients presenting with suspected malignant pericardial effusions needing urgent therapy are generally felt to be poor operative candidates with dismal long-term survival. Options for therapy include urgent percutaneous pericardial drainage with a pigtail catheter or more definitive surgical pericardial window. We hypothesized that the APACHE III-J system can be used to predict long-term survival in these patients and can be used to triage patients with a high APACHE score to percutaneous drainage rather than surgical window.
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