Pericardiectomy for Constrictive Tuberculous Pericarditis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis on the Etiology, Patients’ Characteristics, and the Outcomes.

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most common etiology of constrictive pericarditis in the developing world. In this study, we collected currently available data to evaluate the outcomes following pericardiectomy in patients with constrictive tuberculous pericarditis. We retrieved electrical databases, including PubMed and PubMed Central, from 1985 AD and onwards. We included articles that had more than 80% TB as the etiology and articles with mixed etiologies. Pooled analysis was done in Review Manager (RevMan) version 5.2 (The Nordic Cochrane Centre, Copenhagen). and Stata Statistical Software, Release 16 ( StataCorp LLC, College Station, TX). We compared the mortality in patients after pericardiectomy due to TB with other etiologies. In-hospital mortality versus one-year mortality was analyzed in studies with constrictive pericarditis of mixed etiologies. We also compared pre-operative New York Heart Association (NYHA) grade to post-operative NYHA grade one year after pericardiectomy. We calculated the pooled mean of postoperative hospital stay, postoperative intensive care unit (ICU) stay, and in-hospital mortality. A total of 12 articles and 859 patients were included in the final analysis. Pericardiectomy was performed mostly on middle-aged men with or without previous comorbidity. Total pericardiectomy was the preferred surgical procedure performed on a mean of 93% of patients. The pooled analysis shows a significant decrease in all-cause mortality in patients with TB as compared to other etiologies (pooled risk ratios (RR) 0.34 CI [0.12,1.01] I2 = 61%) and a lower but insignificant in-hospital mortality in comparison to one-year mortality in studies with mixed etiologies (RR 0.59 [0.11,3.11] I2= 61%). There was a significant improvement in the NYHA grade of the patients one year following pericardiectomy (RR 8.04, CI [5.20,12.45], I2= 0%). The mean postoperative hospital stay and the postoperative ICU stay were calculated and reported in terms of days. The mean postoperative hospital stays in studies with more than 80% of TB cases is 13.34 (10.21, 16.47) with a mean standard deviation of 4.46 (2.87, 6.05). The mean postoperative ICU stay is 1.93 (1.47, 2.39), with a mean standard deviation of 3.26 (2.51, 4.00), and the mean in-hospital mortality is 0.07 (0.02, 0.12). Similarly, the mean postoperative hospital stay in studies with mixed etiologies is 19.40 (11.93, 26.87) with a mean standard deviation of 8.26 (4.21, 12.52). The mean postoperative ICU stay is 3.52 (1.93, 5.10) with a mean standard deviation of 2.34 (1.36, 3.32). The mean in-hospital mortality is 0.06 (0.04, 0.08). There is significant heterogeneity along with a number of methodological concerns, and therefore, generalization of the data should be done with caution, and a randomized controlled trial in the future may be beneficial.