Congenital Absence of the Pericardium in a 16-Year-Old Male with a Rare Pattern of Involvement

Case Report: The congenital pericardial defect is a rare malformation that can be complete or partial. This kind of defect is associated with other congenital abnormalities in 30-50% of patients. Whereas the complete absence of the pericardium is mostly asymptomatic and has little clinical importance, partial ones may cause chest pain or dyspnea and can be life-threatening through the strangulation of the cardiac structure. The defect is partial in most cases and is more often left-sided than right-sided. We report a case of the congenital absence of the pericardium around the right ventricle and the posterior portion of the left ventricle without evidence of cardiac chamber herniation or strangulation.