title: Treatment of life-threatening huge atrial myxoma: report of two cases.
abstract: We herein report two patients with left atrial myxoma who needed an emergency operation. Case 1 was a 48-year-old woman who was injured in a traffic accident and underwent an operation for a right leg fracture. Just after the operation she developed cardiac and respiratory arrest with complaints of chest pain. She was successfully resuscitated and diagnosed to have a left atrial myxoma by echocardiography. Emergency surgery was performed and a giant left atrial myxoma was thus removed from the atrial septum. Case 2 was a 54-year-old housewife who was transferred to our department under the diagnosis of a left atrial myxoma by echocardiography. She complained of dyspnea and chest discomfort. By angiography, the tumor was seen to be partially incarcerated at the diastolic phase. A huge myxoma was removed from the atrial septum which was secured by a patch closure. Cardiac echocardiography can help rule out left atrial myxoma if it is highly suspected. As early surgical mortality is low and the long-term results are good, we strongly believe that patients with cardiac myxoma should be operated on as early as possible, once a diagnosis is made.
authors.affiliation: Department of Traumatology and Critical Care Medicine, Sapporo Medical University and Hospital, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Asai
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ichimura
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abe
mesh_terms: D004452:Echocardiography; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009232:Myxoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*