The syndrome was first described in 1952 after surgical repair of mitral stenosis. A febrile illness with an inflammatory reaction that typically involves the pleura and pericardium characterizes the syndrome.
Effusions often accompany the syndrome.
PPS often is associated with the development of antiheart antibodies. Various viral agents, including coxsackie B, adenovirus, and cytomegalovirus, have been present in approximately two thirds of patients with postpericardiotomy syndrome, suggesting an autoimmune response associated with a viral infection. Postpericardiotomy syndrome usually presents as a mild, self-limited inflammatory illness. Life-threatening pericardial tamponade can develop due to a progressively increasing pericardial effusion. Elevation of cardiac filling pressures, progressive limitation of ventricular diastolic filling, and reduction of stroke volume and cardiac output characterize cardiac tamponade.