Surgical Treatment of Cardiac Tumors: A Single Institutional Experience Over 12 Years

Abstract

Introduction: Tumors of the heart represent an exceedingly rare entity in cardiac surgery and literature regarding management and outcome is less in comparison to other fields of cardiac surgery. 12 years of our experience in both diagnosis and optimal surgical treatment of this small but rare collection of patients was formed into a detailed analysis of patient prognosis, mean survival and risk of tumor relapse matched to the corresponding pathology. The overall objective of the present study was a thorough characterization of both primary cardiac tumor or tumor like mass and secondary malignant tumor mass in cardiac chambers, their nature as well as age and gender distribution and management. Material and methods: 17 patients with cardiac tumors, who underwent open-heart surgery at Medical College and Hospitals, Kolkata, for tumor excision between 2007 and 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. Mean follow-up was from 11 to 1 years. Results: There were 2 males and 15 female patients ranging in age from 7 years to 60 years, median age being 47 years. 12 of these tumors were primary left atrial myxoma, 2 were right atrial myxoma, 1 was right ventricular fibroma, 1 was intravenous extension into right atrium of renal cell carcinoma and 1 was multiple inflammatory pseudo tumors in left ventricle. Overall operative survival was 88.3%. Operative mortality was 11.7%. Conclusion: Cardiac tumors remain challenging in the clinical setting. Early operation is recommended after echocardiographic diagnosis as such patients can have sudden death or severe cardiac failure during preoperative waiting period. Follow up should be maintained based upon the histopathological diagnosis.