Carcinoid heart disease and carcinoid syndrome: Successful surgical treatment

Tumor debulking can greatly improve quality of life for patients with malig nant carcinoid syndrome, but hepatic cytoreduction is confounded by carcino id heart disease, which can cause postsinusoidal portal hypertension, there by increasing the risk of death from hemorrhage during hepatic resection. W e describe a patient with metastatic carcinoid syndrome and carcinoid heart disease who had repair of his carcinoid heart disease and, after improveme nt of right-sided heart function, had successful hepatic debulking of carci noid metastases. (C) 1999 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.