Dr. Zubin Nalladaru, Consultant Cardiothoracic surgeon at Mediclinic City Hospital and Associate Professor of Surgery at MBRU, recently performed a complex surgery to remove a rare malignant tumor (angiosarcoma) from the heart of a 40 year old Indian expatriate.
Cardiac tumours are very rare and usually present with symptoms of stroke, heart failure or disturbances in heart rhythm. Out of all cardiac tumours, only 25% are malignant and are reported as anecdotal cases.
This unique case was incidentally diagnosed when the patient experienced a fainting episode.
In order to investigate his symptoms, doctors performed cardiac CT which showed suspicion of a tumour in the right atrium of the heart. Later, a Cardiac MRI and echocardiogram confirmed the diagnosis.
A multidisciplinary team of cardiac surgeons, cardiologists, a radiologist and oncologist discussed the case and it was decided to perform the complex surgery to excise the tumour.
A three-hour open heart surgery was performed by Dr. Zubin and his team to remove the tumour which was 7x4 cm in size. Dr. Zubin said, “It was a very complicated surgery, as the tumour was located close to the right coronary artery and there was also a risk of damaging the conduction system of the heart while removing the tumour which would require a permanent pacemaker. However, we managed to safely excise the entire tumour without any complications and the patient was discharged on the fifth day following surgery.
“The successful outcome of this surgery is due to team effort, including physicians, operation theatre nursing, perfusion, anaesthesia and ICU teams.”
