Approach to Surgery for Cardiac Tumors: Primary Simple, Primary Complex, and Secondary

Cardiac tumors are rare. Most surgeons will encounter few primary cardiac tumors outside of myxomas. This article offers the authors’ approach to simple and complex primary and secondary cardiac tumors. Symptoms of primary cardiac tumors are primarily determined by tumor size and anatomic location. Most simple primary tumors and some complex primary tumors are best managed by surgical resection. Secondary tumors are 30 times more frequent than primary cardiac tumors. Surgical resection of secondary tumors is rational in a few highly selected patients. For complex primary and secondary tumors, the authors recommend referral to an experienced multidisciplinary cardiac tumor team.