Primary Percutaneous Pericardiotomy for Malignant Pericardial Effusion (PMAP) - a Randomized Study

Pericardial effusion is a common complication in patients with metastatic malignancy with an incidence as high as 21%. The occurrence of malignant pericardial effusion significantly impacts on patient's survival and quality of life. While pericardiocentesis provide effective relieve from life-threatening situation such as cardiac tamponade, recurrence of pericardial effusion after pericardiocentesis is common and occurs in as high as 31% of patients. Retrospective data has shown that prolonged pericardial drainage might reduce the recurrence rate but at the cost of increased risk of infection and prolonged hospital stay. Surgical pericardiotomy was used in the past but was not shown to reduce recurrence over prolonged pericardial drainage and is associated with a higher rate of complications. Surgical pericardial window creation via a mini-thoracotomy might be an effective treatment and can be considered in patient with pericardial tamponade. The safety and feasibility of Percutaneous Balloon pericardiotomy (PBP) has been first described 1993 and has been shown to be an alternative treatment for patient with malignant pericardial effusion. However, no data is available on the efficacy of PBP in reducing the recurrence of pericardial effusion, in comparison with standard pericardiocentesis with prolonged drainage. We aim to perform a single centre, randomized, prospective, open label controlled pragmatic trial to compare percutaneous balloon pericardiotomy (treatment) to standard pericardiocentesis with prolonged drainage (control) in preventing pericardial effusion recurrence in patients with malignant pericardial effusion.