Surgical treatment of cardiac myxoma

Objective To review and sum up the experience of diagnosis and surgical treatment of cardiac myxoma. Methods 133 patients with cardiac myxoma of different locations from January 1990 to May 2007 admitted in Qilu Hospital of Shandong University and Department of Cardivovascular Affdiafed Zhong shan Hospital of Xiamen Unversity were clearly diagnosed by two dimensional echecardiography. The tumors of 109 patients were located in left atrium ,22 in right atrium and 2 in both cardiac atria. All the patients underwent tumor extirpation under extracor-poreal circulation. Atrioventricular valve plasty was performed when necessary. 11 underwent bicuspid valvuloplasty and 6 underwent tricuspid valvuloplasty at the same time. All the minors were sent to histopathology examination. Re-suits Two patients died of low cardiac output syndrome in early postoperative period. Cerebral embolism happened in 6 cases,left lower extremity embolism and pulmonary embolism in 1 ease respectively. Other patients' symptoms were improved and the physical sign disappeared. All the tumors were demonstrated to be benign cardiac myxoma. Conclusions Most cardiac myxoma is benign but its clinical consequence is severe. So tumor extirpation should be performed as soon as possible and the following-up is important after operation. Prevention of tumor defluvium is im-portant. Two dimensional echocardiography is preferred in the diagnosis of cardiac myxoma. Key words: Cardiac tumor;  Myxoma;  Surgical treatment;  Embolism