Pericarditis and cardiac tamponade are very rare complications of inflammatory disease of the bowel. A case of a patient with ulcerative colitis, who subsequently developed pericarditis, cardiac tamponade and pleural effusion during a latent phase of the baseline disease, is presented. At the same time, the papers published on this subject are reviewed. The presence of dyspnea, tachypnea, of pleuritic pain in patients with ulcerative colitis must be taken into consideration, and all the tests necessary to study a pleuropericardial pathology should be performed.