Spontaneous Regression Of Pulmonary Leiomyomas During Pregnancy

Abstract

During a 14-year period, 8 cases of primary heart tumours were observed at Sainte-Justine Hospital. Three of these patients had a favourable course without any surgical treatment. The age of these patients was respectively 3 days, 7 weeks, and 6 1/2 years. The clinical and para-clinical symptomology of the first two patients was suggestive of heart disease from the onset. Catheterization and angiocardiographies confirmed the presence of a tumour deforming both ventricular cavities. In these two cases, an attempt at surgical resection proved to be impossible in view of the extent of the lesion. Biopsy demonstrated rhabdomyoma in one of the patients and a diffuse fibroma in the other. Six and four years later, the patients were still alive, and improvements of both the electrocardiogram and of the cardiopulmonary x-ray pictures were noted. A second cardiac catheterization showed an almost complete disappearance of the pathological images. The third case regards a 6-year-old child with a classical Bourneville tuberous sclerosis with a localized tumour at the junction of the superior vena cava and the right atrium. Three years later a control catheterization showed the tumour to have remained unchanged. Two conclusions might be drawn from these cases: 1) a surgical operation, although always indicated, should never involve a desperate attempt at tumour removal; 2) the prognosis should never be considered as lethal from the start.