Primary cardiac tumors--French studies of 533 cases

The present study combining the Eisenman French Joint Study and the Broussais Hospital experience is based upon 533 primary cardiac tumors which were operated on in France and by French-speaking teams during a period of about 25 years. The diagnosis of heart tumors was facilitated by the progressive development of new examination techniques. Echocardiography seems to be the simplest, safest, and the most reliable diagnostic method and is used more frequently then angiocardiography. Cardiac tumors occur at every age with a prevalence for females. About 10% of the surgically treated primary cardiac tumors were malignant (53 patients) with a constantly poor prognosis. The mean survival time of this collective after operation was only 1.5 years. 8% of the benign cardiac tumors were non-myxomatous (36), including fibromas, rhabdomyomas, and hamartomas. The mean age of this group was lower (21 years) than in the collectives with myxomas or with malignant cardiac tumors. Another characteristic of non-myxomatous tumors is the involvement of the ventricles by the neoplasm (88%). Complete resection of the tumor was possible in 75%, only 3 operative deaths occurred. Myxomas are the most common tumors of the heart, representing 83% of all primary cardiac tumors (444). Female patients were involved more often than males. The age of the patients ranged widely from 2.5 to 82 years. The typical localization of the myxomas was the left atrium (83%), followed by the right atrium (11%). In 5 cases myxomas were found multilocalized. Very often myxomas were mimicing valvular disease. In more than 30% peripheral embolization provoked the diagnosis. Only in 2% was the tumor totally asymptomatic.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)