Left atrial myxoma causing mitral insufficiency. Report of a case treated with mitral valve replacement.

A case of left atrial myxoma causing mitral insufficiency treated with valve replacement and diagnosed preoperatively as mitral stenosis is presented. The presence of mitral regurgitation is very rare in atrial myxomas and requires mitral valve replacement. In our case mitral regurgitaion was due to the mechanical trauma of the valve by the tumor mass because the patient had no history of rheumatic fever and the pathologic examination of the valve displayed neither rheumatic nor myxomatous degeneration.