Cardiac myxoma: clinical presentation, surgical treatment and outcome.

PURPOSE: To analyse the clinical characteristics and patterns of cardiac myxomas and to evaluate the clinical course and surgical treatment results.

METHODS: In this retrospective study we evaluated the clinical presentation, diagnostic methods and surgical treatment outcome in all patients (n=17) with cardiac myxoma treated at the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases of Vojvodina between the 1.1.2006-31.1.2009.

RESULTS: Patients with cardiac myxoma constituted 0.52% of all patients having had heart operations for different reasons. The average patient age was 56.59 years and 12 (70.88%) patients were female and 5 (29.12%) male. Left atrial myxomas were by far more frequent (16 patients, 94.11%) than right atrial myxomas (1 patient, 5.88%). The average time of symptom presence was around 12 months while 4 patients (23.53%) were asymptomatic. The most common symptom was dyspnoea (53%) and fatigue (41%). Total extirpation of tumor mass was achieved in all cases. The tumor size ranged from 1.7x1 cm to 9.5x3.3 cm (average of 2x2.86) and histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of cardiac myxoma in every instance. The 30-day mortality after surgical extirpation of atrial myxomas was 0%.

CONCLUSION: Cardiac myxoma may mimic a huge variety of other cardiac diseases. Echocardiography plays an important role in diagnosing this disease. Because of relatively low risk, surgical treatment is recommended for most patients with excellent postoperative prognosis.