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Today we are going to be talking about pericarditis. Pericarditis is the inflammation of the pericardium, the area around the heart. Pericarditis could be caused by either an infectious source, so which could be viral, bacterial, or fungal, or it can be caused by an MI. Some of the things we want to think about as nurses when we are taking care of these patients are we want to think about performing a 12 lead EKG. We want to do a good assessment, listening to the heart sounds, and we want to manage their pain. This thing is very painful, our desired outcome. We want to treat the cause and remove the source of infection. If it's caused by an infection while preserving the cardiac output and preventing any other major or minor complications.
So, you have inflammation inside of your pericardium. So, what are some things that you think we'd need to, uh, look out for? What do you think the patient's going to tell us? Well, first number one is chest pain. These patients are in pain, so it's aggravated by breathing, coughing, and swallowing. So it's not normal chest pain. When you're gonna think about, um, like when you have a heart attack, it's going to be exacerbated by coughing and breathing. We also want to think about pain. That's worse when they're supine. So when they're lying flat on their back, that pain is worse. That's why you oftentimes see those pericarditis patients leaning forward to get relief. And also you'll see some symptoms of heart failure, you know, fluid overload, shortness of breath, those types of things, some signs that we'll see as a nurse, some objective signs that we'll see increased temperature fever. We're going to see increased white blood cells. That's going to be on the labs again, signs of heart failure. We may see some ST elevation on the EKG that we perform. We're going to see decreased o2 SATs.
We're going to see signs and symptoms of cardiac tamponade. So that's actually very, uh, specialized, um, condition, the cardiac tamponade, not, and not just run over those really quickly. The fact that some of the cardiac tamponade not, ER, muffled heart sounds narrow, pulse pressure, uh, juggler, venous distension, and also a decreased cardiac output. So nursing intervention, obviously with ad PI, we want to focus on assessing the person. We want to assess the heart, assess the lungs. You may hear something, what we call pericardial friction rub. And that's just a heart sound that we're going to hear when we're auscultating, you may hear muffled heart sounds, or you may hear extra sounds because of all the extra pressure from the inflammation.
We also want to perform that, uh, that EKG. So, we want to take a look at the heart from an electrical standpoint. Pericarditis is known for causing any type of arrhythmias and ST elevation has fluid builds up so, we want to focus on that as well. We want to manage the pain because the pain is out of this world for these patients, okay. Patients are going to have significant chest pain that is worse when breathing, and also when they're supine. Remember old carts, we want to assess the character. We want to assess the location. What makes it better? What makes it worse? We want to do a good pain assessment and administer any type of pain medication or anti-inflammatories as necessary. And that's order again. We want to check for cardiac tamponade. We want to assess Beck's triad. And that is the JVD the juggler vein distension, decreased BP, and muffled heart sounds. That is Beck’s Triad. We want to prepare the patient for an emergent pericardiocentesis. I know that's a long word, but all we're saying is we want to go in and drain some of the fluid that's around the heart, and that's, um, will allow the heart to beat more freely and it will improve cardiac output rapidly as soon as the procedure's done. We want to educate the patient on the signs and symptoms of infection. So we want to make sure that the patient has no dental work, uh, for at least six months because the patient is at high risk for a reoccurrence. We want to make sure that they notify providers, that they don't have a history of pericarditis. Very important. The next thing I want to show you is what the EKG looks like when a patient presents with pericarditis.
So as you see here, there is ST Elevation here, here, here, this ST elevation all over. And the thing that makes this unique is because with a heart attack or am I, you will see ST elevation, but typically in one lead pericarditis, because of the inflammatory process, the EKG is going to show inflammation and multiple leads. So that's something that will help rule out whether it's a heart attack or MI. Some key points, pathophysiology. Pericarditis is an inflammation of the heart is caused by the bacterial virus, or am I the subjective things that we want to focus on? Chest pain, pain that is worse with supine, some symptoms of heart failure, the things that we want to assess for as nurses, or we want to assess for fever. There may be some ST elevation on that EKG. And also they're going to have some decreased o2 Sats.
We want to do a good cardiac assessment, 12 lead EKG. We want to take a listen. We want to auscultate, and we want to keep track of those vital signs. We may see or hear those muffled heart tones or pericardial friction rubs. When we listen, pain management is, is very important. We want to do frequent pain assessments, at least every two hours. And we want to administer, uh, anti-inflammatories uh, with the frequency as ordered by the doctor. I know that this was a lot of information, but I know you guys are going to do so well on it. We love you guys go out and be your best self today. And as always happy nursing.
So, you have inflammation inside of your pericardium. So, what are some things that you think we'd need to, uh, look out for? What do you think the patient's going to tell us? Well, first number one is chest pain. These patients are in pain, so it's aggravated by breathing, coughing, and swallowing. So it's not normal chest pain. When you're gonna think about, um, like when you have a heart attack, it's going to be exacerbated by coughing and breathing. We also want to think about pain. That's worse when they're supine. So when they're lying flat on their back, that pain is worse. That's why you oftentimes see those pericarditis patients leaning forward to get relief. And also you'll see some symptoms of heart failure, you know, fluid overload, shortness of breath, those types of things, some signs that we'll see as a nurse, some objective signs that we'll see increased temperature fever. We're going to see increased white blood cells. That's going to be on the labs again, signs of heart failure. We may see some ST elevation on the EKG that we perform. We're going to see decreased o2 SATs.
We're going to see signs and symptoms of cardiac tamponade. So that's actually very, uh, specialized, um, condition, the cardiac tamponade, not, and not just run over those really quickly. The fact that some of the cardiac tamponade not, ER, muffled heart sounds narrow, pulse pressure, uh, juggler, venous distension, and also a decreased cardiac output. So nursing intervention, obviously with ad PI, we want to focus on assessing the person. We want to assess the heart, assess the lungs. You may hear something, what we call pericardial friction rub. And that's just a heart sound that we're going to hear when we're auscultating, you may hear muffled heart sounds, or you may hear extra sounds because of all the extra pressure from the inflammation.
We also want to perform that, uh, that EKG. So, we want to take a look at the heart from an electrical standpoint. Pericarditis is known for causing any type of arrhythmias and ST elevation has fluid builds up so, we want to focus on that as well. We want to manage the pain because the pain is out of this world for these patients, okay. Patients are going to have significant chest pain that is worse when breathing, and also when they're supine. Remember old carts, we want to assess the character. We want to assess the location. What makes it better? What makes it worse? We want to do a good pain assessment and administer any type of pain medication or anti-inflammatories as necessary. And that's order again. We want to check for cardiac tamponade. We want to assess Beck's triad. And that is the JVD the juggler vein distension, decreased BP, and muffled heart sounds. That is Beck’s Triad. We want to prepare the patient for an emergent pericardiocentesis. I know that's a long word, but all we're saying is we want to go in and drain some of the fluid that's around the heart, and that's, um, will allow the heart to beat more freely and it will improve cardiac output rapidly as soon as the procedure's done. We want to educate the patient on the signs and symptoms of infection. So we want to make sure that the patient has no dental work, uh, for at least six months because the patient is at high risk for a reoccurrence. We want to make sure that they notify providers, that they don't have a history of pericarditis. Very important. The next thing I want to show you is what the EKG looks like when a patient presents with pericarditis.
So as you see here, there is ST Elevation here, here, here, this ST elevation all over. And the thing that makes this unique is because with a heart attack or am I, you will see ST elevation, but typically in one lead pericarditis, because of the inflammatory process, the EKG is going to show inflammation and multiple leads. So that's something that will help rule out whether it's a heart attack or MI. Some key points, pathophysiology. Pericarditis is an inflammation of the heart is caused by the bacterial virus, or am I the subjective things that we want to focus on? Chest pain, pain that is worse with supine, some symptoms of heart failure, the things that we want to assess for as nurses, or we want to assess for fever. There may be some ST elevation on that EKG. And also they're going to have some decreased o2 Sats.
We want to do a good cardiac assessment, 12 lead EKG. We want to take a listen. We want to auscultate, and we want to keep track of those vital signs. We may see or hear those muffled heart tones or pericardial friction rubs. When we listen, pain management is, is very important. We want to do frequent pain assessments, at least every two hours. And we want to administer, uh, anti-inflammatories uh, with the frequency as ordered by the doctor. I know that this was a lot of information, but I know you guys are going to do so well on it. We love you guys go out and be your best self today. And as always happy nursing.
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