Background: Cardiac myxoma, the most common primary tumor in the adult, is less often encountered in infants and children. We reviewed our series of children with cardiac myxoma over a 22-year period and present the long-term results of surgical resection of the tumor.
Patients and methods: From January 1985 to December 2006, 15 children between the ages of 5 months and 14 years (mean age, 6.5 years) with cardiac myxoma were reviewed. Follow-up information from every patient was obtained from outpatient records and direct patient contact.
Results: Cardiac signs appeared in 86.7% of the patients. Most myxomas originated from the left atrium. There was no operative death. No patients were lost to follow-up, and the mean follow-up was 9.6 years. There were no late deaths during the follow-up. To date, 13 of 15 operative survivors were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class I without medication and the other 2 were in class II. All patients demonstrated sinus rhythm and no child required reexcision of tumor.
Conclusions: Our clinical experience showed surgical resection was a safe and effective treatment for cardiac myxoma in pediatric patients and the risk of recurrence was low during the long term follow-up.