Surgical Treatment of Atrial Myxomas: Outstanding Outcome of a Treacherous Tumor

Abstract Background Primary cardiac tumors are quite rare and mostly benign in nature. Vast majority of the benign heart tumors are myxomas. These may present with a wide range of symptoms from being completely asymptomatic to having life-threatening complications like stroke, heart failure or even sudden death. This study summarizes our 6 years’ clinical experience with surgical resection of cardiac tumors at our department. Methods 20 patients, who underwent surgical excision of primary intra-cardiac myxoma between February 2014 and February 2020 were included in the study. 17 (85%) of them were females and 3 (15%) were males. Mean age was 43.4 ± 14.1 years. The tumors were located in the left atrium in 19 patients and in 1 patient it was in the right atrium. The commonest attachment site was the interatrial septum. Majority of the patients presented with dyspnea. Preoperative diagnosis was established by transthoracic echocardiography with color doppler. All patients were operated via median sternotomy. Results All 20 patients had survived the operations. Mean tumor dimension was 4.6±3.5 cm in the longest diameter. Solid tumors were detected in 13 patients (65%) while papillary myxomas were found in 7 patients (35%). On follow-up of these 20 patients, there was no perioperative death. One patient presented with recurrence 28 months after the operation. Conclusions Although cardiac myxomas carry the risk of serious systemic and cardiac symptoms, prompt surgical excision gives excellent outcome.