Ethical and clinical dilemma from an incidental cardiac lipoma in a young and healthy patient

Abstract

Incidental cardiac tumors are rare and mostly detected on autopsy as patients largely remain asymptomatic. However, diagnosis of an incidental cardiac mass on unrelated workup can pose significant ethical and clinical challenge to the care team. Surgical resection has been the most successful intervention for most primary cardiac tumors; which involves cardiopulmonary bypass-assisted major surgery and is not risk free. Cardiac lipoma is the second most common primary cardiac benign tumor. We report a case of a young otherwise healthy patient who had a cardiac lipoma on computerized tomography scan that was done to rule out kidney stone.

An Intramyocardial Lipoma Mimicking Post-infarction Fatty Changes: Discussion of Key Distinguishing Imaging Findings and Clinical Implications

“…These benign tumors can arise anywhere within the heart; however, they are commonly located in the right atrium and left ventricle [1]. While most lipomas are clinically silent, the location of the mass is pertinent, as it can help guide medical management and understand potential symptomatology [3,5]. In this report, we describe a patient with an asymptomatic lipoma located within the distal interventricular septum incidentally discovered on low-dose computed tomography.…”