Brain metastasis of cardiac myxoma: case report and review of the literature

Cardiac myxoma is the most common benign heart tumor. Cardiac myxoma can be a sporadic lesion (93% of cases) and usually occurs in women over 30 years. Complete surgical removal of the myxoma and its cardiac attachment is usually curative. The frequency of recurrences in cardiac myxomas varies between 3% for sporadic cases and 22% for cases of Carney complex. Recurrence has been related to incomplete excision, multifocality, and embolism of tumor fragments. We report a case with multiple brain metastases presumably due to tumor embolization from previously operated cardiac myxoma.