Myxoma of the right ventricle of the heart: Report of a case with successful removal and review of the literature

Abstract Myxomas of the right ventricle are extremely rare. We have reported the case of an 18-year-old woman who had such a tumor that was correctly diagnosed preoperatively and was successfully treated by surgical removal. To our knowledge, this constitutes the second case in the literature with such an outcome. The clinical features of these myxomas are ill defined but resemble those of pulmonary stenosis. The possibility of such a lesion should always be borne in mind and though of whenever doubt arises while one is considering pulmonary stenosis as a work-up diagnosis, and angiocardiography should be performed in order to clarify this obscure point. Intracardiac myxomas are histologically benign but hemodynamically "malignant," and the almost sure fatality from the embolic phenomenon urges us to diagnose it and treat it early enough. A thorough review of the literature has been presented.