ABSTRACT
Throughout antiquity, the pericardium and heart were considered “off limits” by physicians. In 1766 Morgagni described the entity we now refer to as cardiac tamponade. This condition was recognized as usually fatal, and no interventions were attempted. In 1801, Francisco Romero performed the first pericardial procedure for “hydropericardio.” Romero did not report his experience until 1815 when he presented two pericardial drainage procedures and five open pleural drainage procedures to the Society of the School of Medicine in Paris. Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, Napolean’s chief surgeon, is credited with performing and reporting the first surgical procedure on the pericardium in 1810, 5 years prior to Romero’s presentation in Paris. The American surgeon Claude Schaeffer Beck recognized the clinical triad of high venous pressure, hypotension, and distant heart sounds associated with cardiac tamponade in 1935. This constellation of findings is referred to as Beck’s triad.
