Surgical Treatment of Cardiac Tumors: a 17-year Experience at Department of Cardiac Surgery, NICVD, Dhaka

Cardiac Myxoma is the most common benign intra-cardiac tumor of heart. We studied its incidence, clinical presentations, short term outcome, morbidity and mortality following surgery over a period of 17 years. The retrospective observational study was performed in the Department of Cardiac Surgery, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) Dhaka, Bangladesh from 2000 to 2016. NICVD is the tertiary hospital for cardiovascular surgery in the Government sector. One hundred twenty nine (129) patients were of cardiac myxoma among 11,923 open heart surgery was done in this study period of 17 years. As a result, cardiac myxoma patients represent 1.08% of all open heart surgery. Pre-operative diagnosis was done on clinical presentations and 2D echocardiography, which is the most important tool for its diagnosis. Most of the patients presented at 4th to 5th decade of life. The patients presented with triad of valve obstructive features, embolic symptoms and constitutional symptoms alone or in combination. Among all myxoma patients, majority (86.6%) had left atrial myxoma. Cardiac myxoma forms a very small percentage of all cardiac diseases requiring surgical treatment. Immediate surgical excision is indicated in all patients to avoid life-threatening complications. Outcome of surgical treatment was excellent.