Acute heart failure due to a giant left atrial myxoma: a case report

Abstract

Background: Cardiac myxomas are the most common primary benign tumour of the heart. Most of them occur between the 4th and 6th decade of life, are most frequent in the woman, and most frequently localized in the left atrium. Case summary: We present a case of a 41-year-old female who presented with a history of left-sided heart failure. A left atrial mass of 87 × 88 × 65 mm was documented by cardiac magnetic resonance. She was taken to surgical resection of the mass. Histopathologic findings were diagnostic of cardiac myxoma. Generally, myxomas that are bigger than 6 cm are associated with the worst prognosis. Discussion: Primary cardiac tumours are mostly benign, being in 50% of the cases a cardiac myxoma. The rest of them correspond to papillary fibroelastoma (26%), fibromas (6%), lipomas (4%), and others including calcified tumours, haemangiomas, teratomas, cysts, and rhabdomyomas. Our clinical case illustrates an unusual and rare presentation of cardiac myxoma with a double mitral lesion.