Primary benign cardiac tumours: long-term results

Primary heart tumours are rare lesions with variegated histological types. We reviewed our 35 years experience with a significant number of primary benign cardiac tumour cases.

The patient database at University of Bologna was searched to identify patients with primary cardiac tumours between 1974 and 2009. Benign tumours were classified as myxomas and non-myxomas. Ninety-four were myxomas (mean age of 59.1 ± 15.6), and 13 were benign non-myxomas tumours (mean age of 39.7 ± 24.9; P = 0.0001). Complete resection of the masses was performed in all cases except in one.

In-hospital mortality was 3% in the myxoma group and 8% in the non-myxoma group. The mean follow-up was 15.1 and 7.4 years for the myxoma and non-myxoma groups, respectively. The long-term survival of discharged patients was 68 ± 7% for the myxoma group and 100% for the non-myxoma group at 20 years, respectively. Recurrence of a tumour occurred only in the myxoma group (four cases) after 1, 3, 5 and 8 years, respectively. Twenty patients had an extracardiac tumour that was diagnosed before operation in 12 (11 in the myxoma group) and during the follow-up in 8 patients (only in the myxoma group).

Primary cardiac tumours can be surgically treated with good short- and long-term results. Mortality and morbidity are mainly due to the status of preoperative patients'. An accurate follow-up is mandatory in order to detect the recurrence of a cardiac tumour such as to exclude the presence or the development of extracardiac tumours that we found frequently associated with the myxoma.