Role of pre-operative assessment in the surgical management of leiomyoma extended to the right heart chambers: a compendium of information from isolated reports

Recurrent intravenous leiomyoma extending to the right heart chambers is ex tremely rare. A large range of surgical techniques and approaches (i.e. two -step procedure, hypothermia and circulatory arrest) have been previously d escribed, We report a recent case where the tumour was excised in a one-ste p procedure under normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass. This report associat ed to a comprehensive literature review allows us to discuss the role of pr e-operative assessment and to propose refinement of surgical techniques acc ording to the anatomy of the tumour. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.