• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.136-139
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• 2023

Although cardiac myxoma is one of the most common types of benign cardiac tumors, infected cardiac myxoma is very infrequent. The diagnosis of infected cardiac myxoma may be challenging because the presenting symptoms are non-specific and established management guidelines are lacking. This report describes a 39-year-old woman with a 5-month history of uncontrolled fever, chills, and myalgia who was diagnosed with myxoma and underwent mass excision. Although blood and urine cultures were negative for growing bacteria, a pathologic examination showed that the excised mass was a left atrial myxoma, with pan-bacterial polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the surgical specimen revealing Haemophilus parainfluenzae at 99.87%, resulting in a diagnosis of infected cardiac myxoma. Laboratory tests, such as PCR, may supplement culture results in the diagnosis of infected cardiac myxoma.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.570-573
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• 1987

A surgical operation on a patient with infected left atrial myxoma is presented. The patient was a 50-year-old woman who was admitted to the Kyung Hee Medical Center Hospital on March 7 1987 with complaints of high fever, cough and dyspnea that occurred a few days prior to admission. She, who no definite history of the previous cardiac-related problems was obtained from, had visited a dentist to have her eight teeth pulled out a few months prior to this admission. A preoperative 2-D echocardiogram revealed a left atrial tumor, strongly suggesting myxoma and two blood cultures drawn prior to surgery yielded streptococcus viridans. Under the preoperative impression of an infected left atrial myxoma, the tumor was removed through a biatrial approach after establishing CPB and cold cardioplegic. Pathologic examination of the tumor demonstrated a typical myxoma with bacterial colonies within. Postoperative course was uneventful and she was completely well at discharge from the hospital. To our best knowledge, this report is the first surgical experience of infected left atrial myxoma in the Korean literature.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.619-626
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• 2010

Background: The indications and the optimal time of surgery of infective endocarditis are controversial. We report the surgical results of our hospital during the last 10 years with literature review. Material and Method: Between January 2000 and December 2009, we enrolled 23 infective endocarditis patients who underwent surgery, and analyzed retrospectively. In the preoperative blood culture, 8 cases (34.8%) were positive. The average preoperative antibiotics treatment period was $20.78{\pm}16.00$ days. There were 12 (52.2%) urgent operations. The average follow up period was $49.26{\pm}33.21$ months. Result: 20 mechanical valve replacements were performed, 9 in aortic position, 8 in mitral position and 3 in the both positions. The other procedures were one mitral valvuloplasty, one infected myxoma extirpation, and one infected pacemaker lead removal with debridement. The average period of postoperative intravenous antibiotic treatment was $24.39{\pm}15.98$ days. There were 5 complications, including 2 cases of postoperative bleeding, one postcardiotomy syndrome, one cerebral ischemia, and a low cardiac output syndrome. There were statistically significant postoperative improvement in NYHA class, left ventricle end diastolic/end systolic volume, and left atrium size (p-value < 0.05). Conclusion: We could obtain the satisfactory results without any moftalities by using sufficient preoperative antibiotics in hemodynamically stable patients, and by prompt surgery in unstable patients.