Dressler Syndrome

Yes, I was diagnosed with Dresslers in Sept. 2024. I’m still on steroids (10mg) daily and can’t seem to be able to taper off because my symptoms return within a day or two of trying to taper off. I’m now going to try 1mg decrease every month to see if that helps. Between the Amniodarone, Prednisone & Eliquis I seem to have several issues. But, all better than the end results of not being on them. Please let’s keep in touch to see if we find there is a happy medium. Blessing

Hello @reblou50 - I'd like to invite @spdeller and @alliesue to this discussion as they have been suspected or been diagnosed with Dressler syndrome.

@reblou50, have you discussed the tapering with your provider to keep them in the loop while you try to decrease the medications you are on?

I have no pills in my house to visualize 1M. But when I weaned myself off of meds, I would just take a sliver off for a few days and continue until none. No negative effects.

On January 10, 2024 I had the removal of a TAVR pig valve that was replaced with a larger 27mm mechanical aortic heart valve, as well as a double bypass around a stent that was put into my coronary artery that failed (became totally stenosed/plugged up with scar tissue/inflammation/some plaque from the TAVR that was done in May 2023. Anyway, I have been suffering with recurrent pleural effusions ever since my surgery on January 10. I have had to have a thoracentesis done every 2-3 weeks to drain out over 1200 mLs of fluid. I get SOB on exertion, fluid retention, (which has caused stasis dermatitis, which is quite painful and irritating to my calf skin on my left calf only), low grade fever ever since surgery, with fatigue. My cardiac surgeon and office cardiologist said the cause for this is "probably" due to excessive inflammation from the surgery and cutting of the intrathoracic/mammary artery to use for one of my bypasses. They also harvested my left radial artery for the second bypass. Long story short: I have felt crummy and hard to breathe with my pleural space filling up constantly. When asking my surgeon/ cardiologist about what is going on and what can be done to STOP the filling up of my left pleural space every 2-3 weeks, the only options for treatment they gave me were: 1. Watch and wait to see if it slows down/stops on its own 2. Have a plerodesis procedure done (which sounds awful and very toxic to me having read about shooting in an irritating substance like talc to totally inflame the pleural space so that it sticks to the chest wall to get rid of the pleural space). I am totally mentally exhausted living with this condition like this after heart surgery, am becoming very concerned about the longevity and quality of my life that hopefully remains. I finally decided to get a "second" opinion from an experienced pulmonologist I knew about downstate. He did an exam with me as a new patient. Then shared that he believes I may have a condition called Dressler's syndrome. I have a lot of the symptoms of this condition. So, he ordered for me to take Naprosyn 600 mg twice a day, along with colchicine 0.6mg twice a day with food to prevent stomach upset and bleeding. I pray that these antiinflammatory medicines with work to put this syndrome into total remission.
So, has anyone else ever heard or educated heart patients about this syndrome? I have read it is more commonly diagnosed in patients who have had a heart attack, but it can occur in patients like me who have had open heart surgery ( the second time for me.) A couple of burning questions for me are: How long should I be taking the prescribed doses of the two meds above, how long before I may be able to tell any difference in how I feel, how long before followup bloodwork/CXR/chest US needs to be done to see if this treatment is working? I am also on lifelong Coumadin now, so I am also concerned about how the Naproxen may increase my INR, which I monitor weekly currently at my clinic. Has anyone else been diagnosed with this Syndrome, and if so, what treatment worked for you for it to go away? Thank you for reading my story and any insights/knowledge you can share with me.

My message above was from two months ago. My update is: I was put on a tapering dose of Naprosyn, starting at 1000mg per day for one week, then tapered down 200mg every week. This took five weeks of treatment, along with taking colchicine 0.6mg twice a day. Praise the Lord, it worked! My pleural effusion lung drainage has stopped!! I still take colchicine 0.6mg twice a day. My cardiologist said I should stay on this for 6 months or so to prevent the effusions from starting up again.
On a side note, I also had a water retention problem for about 5 months after my open heart surgery/double bypass. I was on Lasix everyday, 80mg for about 4 months, then down to 40 mg daily. And just last week I weaned off of it, and don't take it anymore for now. It seems that since my build up of lung fluid has finally stopped, I do not have the extra water/fluid weight gain I was having with the pleural effusion problem. So I am thankful this problem seems to have resolved as well. Let me know how things are going for you. I will pray for you. It is not a fun condition to deal with.