A serendipitous encounter in a twist of fate from the spine to the heart

Abstract

Incidental findings are common in medicine and often lead to diagnostic and management dilemmas. Myxomas the most prevalent benign tumors can be incidentally diagnosed in almost 20% of cases. Here, we are presenting a case where a patient’s fate changed from spinal disease to cardiac disease. A 60-year-old female presented with excruciating low back pain and was diagnosed with degenerative lumbar spine disease, planned for laminectomy. She was referred to the cardiology opinion regarding perioperative cardiac risk. On echocardiography, a 6.2 cm2 sessile mass attached to the interatrial septum was found, and a probable diagnosis of sessile left atrial myxoma was made. The same was confirmed on cardiac computed tomography. The patient was operated on and had no complications. Histopathology confirmed atrial myxoma.