It is the tumour that begin to growth in the heart. Mostly it is rare case in the patients which grow tumour in the heart. The tumour can be cancerous/malignant or non cancerous/benign. Most cardiac tumour are benign. But even benign tumors can cause problems because of their size and location. Sometime small piece of tumour fall into the bloodstream and carried to distant blood vessels and get way of the blood flow to vital organs. There are two type of cardiac tumours one is Primary tumours and other one is secondary tumours.
The causes of cardiac tumours :-
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- Family history
- Tumour can be part of another health condition such as NAME Syndrome, LAMB syndrome or Carney Syndrome.
- Cell over growth that either starts in the heart or moves to the heart.
Symtoms of Cardiac tumours:-
Mostly patient didn’t recognize they have tumours in the heart unless if they do echo cardiogram for another reason. If the tumour becomes hardened by calcium deposits(calcified) then it may seen in chest X-ray. Most the time tumour discovered only when patients are in their 50-60 plus. But sometime we can also analysed during the young time too. Patient with cardiac myxoma in the left atrium may develop symptoms. This is because due to blocked in the blood flow through mitral valve. The blood flow may blocked all the time when patient is in a certain physical position. If the blood flow is blocked and there is increased pressure in left atrium, it can cause the shortness of breath, light-headedness or cough. The inflammation may cause a fever and sometime patient may feel joint pain or not feeling well.
Treatment:-
Cardiac tumors can lead to problems with blood flow, surgery to remove the tumor is usually the treatment of choice. But, whether surgery is needed depends on the tumor size, whether it causes symptoms, and the patient’s overall health.
Removal requires open heart surgery. But, in many cases, the surgery can be done robotically or using a. During the surgery, the surgeon removes the tumor and the tissue around it to reduce the risk of the tumor returning. Because the surgery is complicated and requires a still heart, a heart-lung machine will be used to take over the work of your heart and lungs during surgery.
Recovery after traditional surgery is usually 6 to 9 days in the hospital, and 6 weeks total recovery time. If the tumor is removed using a robotic or minimally invasive approach, your hospital stay will likely be shorter, and you should make a full recovery in about 2 to 3 weeks.
After surgery, you will need to have an echocardiogram every year to make sure that the tumor has not returned and that there are no new growths.