Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery for the Management of Pleural and Pericardial Effusion in Behçet's Syndrome

A 28-year-old man, who presented with pleural and pericardial chylous effusion secondary to superior vena cava syndrome, was diagnosed with Behçet's syndrome. A pericardial window was created by video-assisted thoracic surgery to relieve cardiac tamponade, and this technique also enabled lung biopsy, pleural abrasion, and drainage of the pleural effusion. We report this case because of its rarity. To the best of our knowledge, the literature contains no other report of the use of video-assisted thoracic surgery for creating a pericardial window for the treatment of cardiac tamponade in a case of Behçet's syndrome.