Two cases of cardiac cyst hydatid with right and left ventricular involvement

Surgical Management and Outcomes of Cardiac and Great Vessels Echinococcosis: A 16-Year Experience

BACKGROUND

Cardiac involvement is an uncommon presentation of hydatid disease. In this study, we aim to analyze the experience of surgical treatment of cardiac and great vessels echinococcosis in our cardiovascular and thoracic surgery department.

METHODS

Through a 16-year period, from 2000 to 2015, 27 patients underwent surgery for cardiac and great vessels hydatid disease. The clinical, operative, and postoperative data were analyzed through this retrospective and descriptive study.

RESULTS

Most of our patients came from a rural area. The most common symptom was chest pain. The diagnosis was mainly made by transthoracic echocardiography, which has shown the right ventricle as the most frequent location of the disease. All patients received surgical treatment under cardiopulmonary bypass, and only six surgeries were performed without cross-clamping the aorta. Inhospital mortality rate was 7.4%.

CONCLUSIONS

Cardiac hydatidosis is a rare but potentially serious condition whose treatment is mainly surgical even for asymptomatic patients owing to its possible fatal complications. The surgery outcomes are usually satisfactory. Follow-up examinations are highly recommended to detect recurrences.

Multiple hydatid cystectomy of the heart necessitating LIMA to LAD anastomosis in a young patient

Cardiac hydatid disease is very rare, even in endemic regions. Clinical manifestations included chest pain, anaphylactic shock, constrictive pericarditis, congestive heart failure, and arterial embolism. Surgery is the exclusive therapy, where the cysts are excised during open-heart surgery. The surgical approach therefore must be performed carefully, given the potential complications that surgery may bring. Because of the risk of potentially lethal complications, early diagnosis and definitive treatment are important. A 32-year-old male patient was admitted with chest pain, weight loss, lethargy, and dizziness. On the transesophageal echocardiography study, a cystic mass (2.5 x 3 x 4.5 cm in dimension adjacent to the left ventricular posterior wall) that was divided into two by a septum was noted. Diagnosis of hydatidosis was confirmed with serologic tests (ELISA and indirect immunofluorescence). Echinococcosis, also known as hydatid disease, is common in several regions of the world, for example, the Mediterranean countries, the Middle East, South America, and East Africa. While performing pericystectomy in the anterior left ventricular wall, we noticed that there were three cysts, contrary to the preoperative diagnosis pointing a single one, and it was impossible to effectively complete the procedure without compromising anterosuperiorly displaced left anterior descending artery (LAD). We decided to go on bypass, arrest the heart, and complete the pericystectomy at the cost of injuring LAD and grafting the left internal mammary artery to LAD. Microscopic examination of the cyst showed a germinal layer and an avascular, eosinophilic, chitinous layer that confirmed the diagnosis of hydatid cyst. The patient was discharged on the fifth postoperative day on albendazole medication.

Imagerie du kyste hydatique du cœur

BACKGROUND

Early diagnosis of cardiac echinococcosis is required because this uncommon disease may lead to serious complications. We report 8 cases of cardiac hydatidosis, review the modes of diagnosis, and stress the contribution of modern imaging techniques.

METHODS

This retrospective study describes 8 patients with cardiac echinococcosis. All had chest radiographs and thoracic computed tomography (CT). Transthoracic sonography was performed in 6 cases and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 5.

RESULTS

Our patients ranged in age from 7 to 46 years, and the clinical features of their disease varied. Chest radiography showed the contours of the heart to be deformed in 3 cases and cardiomegaly in 3 others. Echocardiography revealed a homogeneous unilocular hydatid cyst in 5 cases. CT found homogeneous hypodense unilocular lesions in 7 cases, and a septated cyst with cardiac wall calcifications in one case. MRI showed round homogeneous lesions in 3 cases, all dark in T1-weighted sequences and bright in T2.

DISCUSSION

Clinical features vary substantially, and clinical latency is not uncommon. Chest radiography generally shows mediastinal masses. Transthoracic echocardiography can locate and count cardiac hydatid cysts and identify their borders. CT can simultaneously assess any visceral extension of the disease, while MRI provides details of mediastinal extensions.

CONCLUSION

Transthoracic echocardiography suggests the initial diagnosis. CT and MRI provide details of the location and extension of the cardiac hydatidosis.

Sudden death due to an unrecognized cardiac hydatid cyst: three medicolegal autopsy cases

Echinococcosis is a human infection caused by the larval stage of Echinococcocus granulosus. The most common sites of infection are the liver and the lungs. Cardiac hydatid cysts are very rare, even in regions where hydatic cysts are endemic (the Mediterranean, South America, Africa, and Australia). It has been reported that cardiac involvement is seen in about 0.5-3% of human echinococcosis cases. Three cases of cardiac hydatid disease that caused sudden death and which were histopathologically diagnosed are reported. Cardiac echinococcosis is rare, but due to its insidious presentation and affinity to cause sudden death, it is important that it be identified in the histopathological examination.

Eighteen-year experience with echinococcosus of the heart: clinical and echocardiographic features in 14 patients

We present a retrospective analysis of clinical symptoms and echocardiographic features in 14 patients having cardiac hydatic cysts and screened during the 18 last years, with surgical correlations in 13. The heart was the sole location of the cyst in six patients. The revealing symptoms were precordial pain (six patients), dyspnea (two patients). A systolic murmur of false pulmonic stenosis was present in three patients. In 13 patients, two-dimensional echocardiographic images of hydatic cysts were those of masses of liquid content with a well-contrasted capsule, which was single in eight patients and multiple in five, one of which had a honeycomb appearance. The mass was solid and calcified in one patient. The outlines of the cysts were particularly sharp on transesophageal echocardiograms (six patients). The cyst size ranged from 1.8 to 11 cm in diameter. Cysts were located in the intramyocardium in 10 patients (left ventricle in four patients, interventricular septum in four patients, right ventricle in two patients), the pericardium in three and the mediatinum in one. There were a Doppler pulmonary valve gradient in three patients. Computed tomography (eight patients) and coronary arteriography (seven patients) have no additional diagnosis value than echocardiography. Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (three patients) was helpful in determining extracardiac extension of the cysts. Transthoracic and transesophageal two-dimensional echocardiography have a central role in diagnosing cardiac hydatic cysts.