Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment Outcomes of Cardiac Myxoma: Twenty Years of Data at a Single Institution

Background and Objectives: Cardiac myxoma (CM) is the most common primary benign neoplasm of the heart. This study's objective was to analyse diagnostic features of CM, surgical data and postoperative courses of patients over a 20-year period in a single institution. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients with diagnosed and pathologically confirmed CM who underwent surgical resection in our hospital from 1 January 2004 to 1 January 2024. Data was assessed and analysed from medical records. Results: The study included 76 patients (mean age, 61.7 ± 12.6 years; 60.5% female). The majority of patients (93.7%) had symptoms, most commonly presenting with dyspnoea (64.5%), chest pain (39.5%) and arrhythmias (35.5%). Myxomas were found in the left atrium (89.5%), right atrium (9.2%) and left ventricle (1.3%). Isolated tumour extirpation surgery was performed in 50 patients (65.8%). During the early postoperative period, arrhythmias were the most common complication (n = 16, 21.1%). Early in-hospital mortality occurred in two patients due to cardiopulmonary failure. In the late postoperative period, 11 deaths (14.9%) were observed 4 to 17.5 years after surgery. No recurrence of CM was found in any patient during the follow-up period, yet tumours of other localisations were detected in nine patients. Conclusions: Surgery is the first-line treatment for CM, with a good prognosis. Although during the late postoperative period no cardiac tumour recurrence was observed in our study, 12.2% patients were newly diagnosed with non-cardiac neoplasms. Therefore, we suggest monitoring patients not only for cardiac disorders but also for the occurrence of extracardiac tumours.