Objective: To study the clinical characteristics, diagnosis, and surgical treatment of primary cardiac tumors.
Method: The clinical features and surgical results in 126 cases (1971-2000) of primary cardiac tumors were analyzed retrospectively.
Results: Among the 121 patients with benign tumors were treated surgically, 6 had recurrence of the pathologically confirmed intracardiac myxoma in a period of 1 to 7 years after surgery, and all were cured after reoperation. Follow-up of these patients showed satisfying long-term survival. In the other 5 malignant cases, 1 died during the perioperative period, and the others died of progressive heart failure, cardiac tamponade and cardiac rupture, respectively, within 10 months after the final diagnosis.
Conclusion: The symptoms of primary cardiac tumor are diverse and complex, and echocardiography, CT, MRI are instrumental for a definite early diagnosis. In case of benign tumors, operation usually produces good results, but for malignant tumors characterized by rapid progression, earlier surgical removal in combination with other therapeutic modalities may improve the prognosis.