A beach escape

Having a collection of fluid in the sac surrounding the heart (pericardial effusion) is bad news. When this fluid exerts enough pressure on the heart to compromise its pumping function (cardiac tamponade), urgent treatment is required to prevent cardiovascular collapse.

This treatment is pericardiocentesis, a procedure whereby a needle is used to drain this fluid from the pericardium. If the thought of a long needle going within millimetres of your heart doesn’t get you anxious, I don’t know what will!

We trialled virtual reality (VR) as an adjunct to standard anxiolytic therapy in an unstable patient undergoing emergency pericardiocentesis. VR enabled the patient to be transported from the noisy high dependency unit to a local beach at dawn.

“Wonderful, I forgot what was happening to me for a while.”

Beauport beach - a bit more relaxing than the high dependency unit!

Read more in our case report in European Heart Journal - Case Reports.