Complete removal of heart-compressing large mediastinal lipoma : a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>An 83-year-old man presented with worsening of respiratory discomfort and underwent close examination, which revealed a large mediastinal lipoma measuring 15 × 10 cm. The patient showed heart failure symptoms due to heart compression by tumor. The tumor was compl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kamohara Keiji, Minato Naoki, Minematsu Noritoshi, Hakuba Takeshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2010-06-01
Series:Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Online Access:http://www.cardiothoracicsurgery.org/content/5/1/48
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Summary:<p>Abstract</p> <p>An 83-year-old man presented with worsening of respiratory discomfort and underwent close examination, which revealed a large mediastinal lipoma measuring 15 × 10 cm. The patient showed heart failure symptoms due to heart compression by tumor. The tumor was completely removed safely and reliably by cutting the ascending aorta, main pulmonary artery and superior vena cava. Although preoperative examination could not determine whether the tumor was lipoma or liposarcoma, we selected an invasive surgical therapy because neither radiation therapy nor chemotherapy was considered effective for either type of tumor. We report here a very rare case of heart-compressing mediastinal tumor.</p>
ISSN:1749-8090