Early treatment of intrapericardial teratoma: a case presentation and systematic literature review

Objective: To present a case of an early treatment of cardiac intraperitoneal teratoma (IPT) in a newborn and its associated systematic literature review. Methods: We presented a case of a newborn with IPT but without hydrops and having a good perinatal outcome after cardiac surgery. Using the PubMed database, we conducted a systematic literature review of articles regarding cases with cardiac IPT diagnosed and treated in the neonatal period and published in English from 2004 onward. We excluded cases that involved fetal death or interrupted gestation events. Results: In total, 38 cases of IPT from 31 articles were included. The mean +/- standard deviation of the gestational age at diagnosis and delivery were 27.9 +/- 5.7 and 33.0 +/- 3.5 weeks, respectively, and that of birth weight was 2373 +/- 834.5 g. The majority of fetuses (42.1%) were males. Pericardial effusion was the most common symptom (60.5%) followed by hydrops (42.1%) and respiratory distress (42.1%). Intrauterine procedure was not performed in 63.1% of cases, and 71.0% of newborns were alive. Conclusions: IPT in newborns is usually associated with a good prognosis without the need for intrauterine procedures. Cases with IPT-related death are associated with hemodynamic impairment in fetuses with hydrops.