[Successful repair of a cardiac lipoma of the left ventricular free wall--a case report]

Abstract

We recently encountered a patient with a very rare type of cardiac lipoma, which occurred at the left ventricular free wall and grew into the left ventricular cavity. No surgical treatment of this type of cardiac lipoma has been reported in literature. The patient was a 63-year-old woman who visited our hospital with a chief complaint of palpitation. At the outpatient clinic of our hospital, a tumor of the left ventricle was disclosed by echocardiography. After hospitalization, the patient was diagnosed as cardiac lipoma by CT scans and MR images. She was operated as follows. The apex of the left ventricle was incised and the cardiac cavity was exposed. The lipoma had its root approximately in the center of the posterior free wall of the left ventricle and had grown into the left ventricular cavity with a size of 2.5 X 2.5 X 1.8 cm and a weight of 2.8 g. After removal, the postoperative course was uneventful, but the chief complaint (palpitation) still persisted. Postoperative Holter electrocardiography disclosed that the patient had suffered from sick sinus syndrome and that palpitation had not originated from the cardiac lipoma.