Ethical and clinical dilemma from an incidental cardiac lipoma in a young and healthy patient

Abstract

Incidental cardiac tumors are rare and mostly detected on autopsy as patients largely remain asymptomatic. However, diagnosis of an incidental cardiac mass on unrelated workup can pose significant ethical and clinical challenge to the care team. Surgical resection has been the most successful intervention for most primary cardiac tumors; which involves cardiopulmonary bypass-assisted major surgery and is not risk free. Cardiac lipoma is the second most common primary cardiac benign tumor. We report a case of a young otherwise healthy patient who had a cardiac lipoma on computerized tomography scan that was done to rule out kidney stone.

Keywords

• cardiac lipoma
• echocardiography
• incidental cardiac tumor
• tee