Cardiac metastasis of melanoma presenting as acute aortic occlusion

Cardiac diseases are the most common cause of acute arterial emboli, however, cardiac tumors are not as frequent. Cardiac metastases from melanoma are usually silent, and rarely cause symptoms. Only a few reports are found in the literature of metastatic melanoma, causing arterial emboli. Here, we report a case of a cardiac metastasis of melanoma cancer that presented preoperative as arterial emboli. The gross appearance of the emboli already suggested the presence of a cardiac tumor. In selected patients who have a solitary intracardiac melanoma, surgical resection can provide relief from clinical symptoms and minimize potential cardiac sequelae of the tumor.