INTRODUCTION
Cardiac tumours are rare disorders of heart, amongst which atrial myxoma
are the most common variants. (1) median age at diagnosis is 50 years ,
and it usually presents at 3rd to
6th decade of life, with female to male ratio 2:1. (2)
Clinical features are usually dependent on location of tumour,
propensity of systemic embolization, or non-specific constitutional
symptoms; usually independent of its pathological subtype. Patients can
have cardiac manifestation of Congestive Heart failure including
dyspnoea on exertion, orthopnoea, peripheral edema, pulmonary edema.(3)
It can also present with valvular insufficiency , valvular stenosis or
arrhythmia. Systemic embolization is other common variant of cardiac
myxoma presentation. The emboli can consist of fragmented tumour and/or
thrombus formed on the surface of the mass. Left sided emboli can
present with systemic embolization and right side emboli can present
with pulmonary embolization.(4) Constitutional symptoms like fever,
anorexia, malaise are due to excessive production of IL-6 .(5) Treatment
is complete excision of the myxoma with cuff of normal endocardium. The
surgery requires Cardiopulmonary bypass, requiring full systemic
heparinisation increasing the risk of aggravation of intracranial bleed.