The best way to manage constrictive pericarditis is to follow a doctor’s treatment plan. “We usually will start with additional rounds of colchicine and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,” says Jennifer Wong, MD, a cardiologist and the medical director of non-invasive cardiology at Memorial Care Heart and Vascular Institute at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California. If these don’t help enough, doctors will try treatments like steroids. If a person doesn’t respond to medications, they may be a candidate for surgery.
Medication Options
Medication options include:
- Anti-inflammatory medicines to reduce swelling and pain, like:
- Diuretics (water pills)
- A low-sodium diet to reduce water retention and swelling
You’ll also receive treatment for any underlying causes. For example, if a bacterial infection is the cause, you’ll receive antibiotics; if you have rheumatoid arthritis, you may be prescribed DMARDs (disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs), as well as NSAIDs and steroids.
Surgery
“A lot of times if people have symptoms that are severe and unrelenting, they are really looking at heart surgery,” says Cheng-Han Chen, MD, a cardiologist and the medical director of the Structural Heart Program at Memorial Care Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California. Pericardiectomy is a surgical procedure that removes all or part of the pericardium, allowing the heart to move freely so it can pump blood efficently. It takes between six to eight weeks to recover from the procedure, depending on how serious your condition was before the surgery.
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