Heart Tumors

What Are Heart Tumors?

Heart tumors are structurally diverse neoplasms that arise from the tissues of the heart itself or invade the heart from other organs.

They may involve the heart muscle, pericardium, valves, and cardiac septa. Heart tumors are generally classified into primary tumors, which originate from cardiac tissues, and secondary tumors, which occur as metastatic spread from other organs and are malignant. The most common type of heart tumor is benign, accounting for approximately 75% of all cardiac tumors.

Cardiac myxoma is the most frequently encountered benign heart tumor. It has a gelatinous consistency and may be located in any cardiac chamber, most commonly in the left atrium. The clinical presentation is highly variable and often nonspecific, depending on the tumor’s location and its potential involvement of the cardiac conduction system.

Common symptoms include shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, fainting episodes, and various types of arrhythmias. When the conduction system is affected, rhythm and conduction disturbances may occur, including heart block, paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, and ventricular tachycardia.

The primary danger of heart tumors lies in their ability to disrupt intracardiac hemodynamics, creating obstruction to blood flow through the heart valves. Tumors also pose a serious risk of embolization, in which fragments of the tumor detach and travel through the bloodstream, potentially causing stroke, renal infarction, intestinal infarction, or limb ischemia. These events occur when tumor fragments block blood flow in organs outside the heart.

For accurate diagnosis of heart tumors, echocardiography (both transthoracic and transesophageal) and cardiac MRI or multislice CT are currently used. In the vast majority of cases, these imaging modalities provide sufficient information to determine the nature of the tumor and select the most appropriate treatment strategy.

At our High Medical Technology Clinic, we provide both comprehensive diagnostic evaluation and surgical treatment of cardiac tumors. Each case is unique and requires an individualized approach. However, the presence of a cardiac myxoma is considered an urgent indication for surgical removal, as the risk of fatal complications is extremely high.

Schedule a consultation with our specialists today.