Acute pericardial tamponade is a potentially life-threatening condition that requires immediate treatment. This report describes a patient who presented to the emergency department with an acute hemopericardium and echocardiographic evidence of cardiac tamponade following the initiation of warfarin therapy for a recently diagnosed pulmonary embolism. The association between cardiac tamponade, oral anticoagulation and pulmonary thromboembolic disease is briefly discussed.
In the medical community there is a widely held belief that epinephrine should not be used with lidocaine when attempting a digital block because it will cause tissue gangrene. This belief is reinforced by several of the more prominent emergency textbooks, but a review of the medical literature fails to reveal a sound basis for this dogma.
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