Table 1.

Preoperative and postoperative characteristics of patients (n = 14)

Patient	Age (years), sex	Etiology	Symptoms	Side of surgery	Operation duration (min)	PE volume (mL)	Type of PE
1a,b	62 M	After cardiac surgery	Fatigue	Left	141	950	Serous
2	65 F	After cardiac surgery	Fever	Left	102	60	Serous
3b	77 M	After aortic surgery	DOE, fatigue	Left	68	230	Bloody
4a	76 F	Heart failure	Fatigue, edema	Right	53	350	Serous
5a,b	80 F	Heart failure	Dyspnea, edema	Right	31	350	Serous
6ab	83 M	Idiopathic	DOE, edema	Left	84	1250	Bloody
7a	76 F	Heart failure	Edema, oliguria	Right	37	630	Serous
8	65 M	Malignant disease	DOE, tachycardia	Right	52	600	Bloody
9a	78 M	After cardiac surgery	Fatigue, edema	Left	60	N/A	Hematoma
10b	61 M	After cardiac surgery	Dyspnea, edema	Left	71	200	Bloody
11b	28 F	Malignant disease	Dyspnea, edema	Right	107	230	Bloody
12	65 F	After cardiac surgery	DOE, edema	Left	89	N/A	Hematoma
13a,b	70 M	Chronic pericarditis	Edema	Right	75	420	Serous
14a,b	74 M	After cardiac surgery	Dyspnea, edema	Left	40	600	Serous
Mean ± SD					72.1 ± 29.5

M male, F female, DOE dyspnea on effort, N/A not available, PE pericardial effusion

^aPericardiocentesis was performed before creation of the thoracoscopic pericardial window (TPW)

^bPleural effusion was performed at the same time as creation of the TPW