Cardiac Patients with Primary and Secondary Heart Tumors: Operative Procedures and Follow-Up

Abstract

Whereas the resection of benign and semimalignant cardiac tumors is a procedure accepted worldwide, the surgical therapy of malignant tumors is still a matter under discussion. To evaluate the results of reconstructive procedures after removal of cardiac neoplasms, we investigated the follow-up of 40 patients with benign and 12 patients with malignant cardiac tumors, representing 0.65% of all open-heart surgery patients in our hospital from 1971 to 1987. We always tried to remove the tumor completely, however in four cases of malignant growth only a reduction of the tumor mass was possible. A vast myxoma of the left atrium was resected using the technique of autotransplantation. The created defects of wall or septum were replaced by autogenous or heterologous materials. Of the patients with benign cardiac tumors, one man died in the perioperative period. No recurrence of a tumor was noted. Six of the patients with malignant disease survived longer than 1 year, two of them longer than 48 months. In our opinion, removal of cardiac neoplasms should be done even in patients with a malignant tumor.