[Cardiac echinococcosis. Case report and review of the literature]

Abstract

Cardiac echinococcosis is a rare disease. We report the case of a patient affected by cardiac echinococcosis who underwent surgical treatment successfully. A forty year old woman was hospitalized referring palpitation and dyspnea. The patient had undergone surgical pericystectomy of the right lobe of the liver for echinococcosis 6 month before. Chest X-ray film showed a round opacity well delineated on the left side of the heart, Ghedini reaction was negative, ECG was normal. After a review of literature we analyze anatomo-clinic and therapeutic aspects of the disease.