Rare presentation of atrial myxoma: chest pain, dysphagia and left upper extremity weakness

Abstract

Atrial myxoma is a benign primary heart tumour, which can be found incidentally on imaging studies. It is usually located in the left atrium and may manifest as dyspnoea, chest pain, heart failure, cough, shortness of breath when rising from a recumbent position, haemoptysis, hoarseness and as a source of cardiac embolism. However, dysphagia caused by an atrial myxoma has been reported only twice in the literature. We present a 53-year-old Caucasian man with a chronic history of dysphagia caused by an atrial myxoma, in which surgical resection resulted in complete resolution of his dysphagia.