Functional paragangliomas are rare neuroendocrine tumours that secrete
catecholamines and are infrequently found in the mediastinum. We report a case
of a young male with symptoms of catecholamine excess and a personal and family
history of the paraganglioma predisposing succinate dehydrogenase subunit B
mutation. The lesion had anatomical intrapericardial juxtaposition to important
cardiac anatomy and posed the significant challenge of dissection at surgery.
The lesion was successfully resected via sternotomy on cardiopulmonary bypass
and confirmed histopathologically as paraganglioma. Intrapericardial
paraganglioma is rare and treatment is difficult and time critical considering
the proximity of cardiac anatomy as well as malignant potential.
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