Resection of leiomyosarcoma originating in internal iliac vein and extending into heart via inferior vena cava.

A patient's condition was initially diagnosed as constrictive pericarditis, but an echocardiogram revealed the presence of an intracardiac tumor. The tumor was a slow-growing leiomyosarcoma that originated in the left internal iliac vein, extended into the inferior vena cava, and reached the right ventricle. This tumor was considered to be a recurrent uterine leiomyosarcoma that had been resected 4 years before. After a second resection of this tumor, the patient was living a normal life 61/2 years postoperatively, in spite of recurrence in the pelvis and lung. We reviewed 12 cases of leiomyosarcoma in the world literature that reached the heart through the inferior vena cava. We added our case and evaluated the clinical features of all 13. This is the first successfully resected case of leiomyosarcoma of this nature so far as we could determine.