Surgical Treatment of Rare Multiple Cardiac Myxomas: A 13-Year Clinical Experience at a Single Institution.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiac myxoma (CM) is the most common primary cardiac tumor. Multiple CMs are rare and can lead to heart failure and arterial embolism. This study aimed to explore clinical characteristics, surgical treatment experience, and follow-up strategies for multiple CMs. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on eight patients with multiple CMs who underwent surgical treatment. Clinical characteristics were analyzed by extracting relevant clinical data, electrocardiography and echocardiography findings, surgical treatment details, and postoperative follow-up information. All patients had undergone cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. Pathological analysis was performed on all tumors, and postoperative cardiac ultrasound follow-up was also conducted. RESULTS: Multiple CMs were uncommon, representing only 5.9% of all cases. Among 136 patients with cardiac tumors admitted during the same period, only eight had multiple CMs. All patients with multiple CMs underwent complete tumor resection. The size of the resected tumors was approximately 5-80 (39.3 ± 20.3) mm. The follow-up period ranged from one to nine years. The recurrence rate was 37.5% (3/8), and all recurrent cases underwent reoperation for tumor resection. There were no perioperative deaths, and overall surgical outcomes were satisfactory. CONCLUSION: Our study reveals that surgery is the best strategy for multiple CMs. The tumor should be completely resected, and color Doppler echocardiography is recommended every six months postoperatively to detect tumor recurrence. Those cases of multiple myxomas have had high recurrence rate after resection (37.5%) but were submitted successfully to a new resection. Timely surgical resection provides favorable outcomes for patients with multiple or recurrent CMs.