Background: Cardiac tamponade is a life-threatening state that complicates various medical conditions. The contemporary interventional era may have led to changes in clinical characteristics, causes and outcomes of cardiac tamponade.

Methods: We investigated all patients diagnosed with cardiac tamponade, based on clinical and echocardiographic findings, at a single medical center between the years 2000 and 2013. Data on medical history, index hospitalizations, pericardial fluid etiologies, and acute and long-term outcomes were collected.

Results: Cardiac tamponade was observed in 83 patients (52% females). Major etiologies included complications of percutaneous cardiac interventions (36%) and malignancies (primarily lung cancer; 23%), infectious/inflammatory causes (15%) and mechanical complications of myocardial infarction (12%). Sixteen (19%) patients died during the index hospitalization. Acute presentation of symptoms and lower quantity of effusion were associated with in-hospital mortality (p = 0.045 and p = 0.007). Tamponade secondary to malignancy was associated with the most substantial increment in post-discharge mortality (from 16% in-hospital to 68% 1-year mortality). During the mean follow-up of 45 months, 39 (45%) patients died. Malignancies, mechanical complications of myocardial infarction and bleeding/coagulation abnormalities were etiologies associated with poor survival (80% mortality during follow-up). Tamponade secondary to complications of percutaneous cardiac interventions or infectious/inflammatory causes were associated with significantly lower mortality (28% and 17%; log rank p < 0.001).

Conclusions: In a contemporary cohort, complications of percutaneous cardiac intervention replaced malignant diseases as the leading cause of cardiac tamponade. Nevertheless, these iatrogenic complications were associated with a relatively favorable outcome compared to tamponade induced by complications of myocardial infarction, coagulation abnormalities and malignant diseases.