Butterfly-Shaped Epicardial Lipoma of the Heart

Abstract

Cardiac tumors are a rare entity with typically unspecific symptoms. We present the case of a 43-year old female patient with epigastric pain and palpitations with a long history of diagnostics prior to discovery of an epicardial mass. The epicardial tumor with arterial vascularization from the left anterior descending artery was resected in a beating heart procedure and was found to be a lipomatous soft tissue tumor. A lack of mouse double minute 2 gene amplification in fluorescent in situ hybridization confirmed the diagnosis of a benign cardiac lipoma. Resection led to a long-term resolution of symptoms.