[Cerebral complications in cardiac myxomas]

The authors analyze injuries to the central nervous system in patients with heart myxomas due to tumorous embolism of brain vessels with the development of acute or "delayed" cerebral symptomatology. Stress the difficulty of correct interpretation of acute disorders of cerebral circulation with no other signs of intracavitary heart neoplasm and the possibility of the asymptomatic form of cerebrovascular embolism or its consequences in association with a remarkable clinical picture of heart myxoma. Emphasis is laid on the necessity of carrying out all-round examination of the brain to reveal injuries that may occur under such conditions, to determine the prognosis and treatment policy in the given patients' group, especially in the long-term period after resection of intracavitary heart neoplasm.