[Intrapericardial rhabdomyosarcoma in infancy (author's transl)].

At the age of three months an infant rapidly developed signs of cardiac failure as well as in- and exspiratory stridor, caused by an intrathoracic tumor. Thoracotomy and biopsy revealed an intrapericardial tumor, histologically myxosarcoma. In spite of chemotherapy and radiation the infant died at the age of seven months due to multiple intracerebral metastases now histologically rhabdomyosarcoma. This is one of the rare cases of primarily malignant intrapericardial tumors in infancy, and also shows the possible pleomorphism of childhood rhabdomyosarcoma. We know only one further case of pericardial rhabdomyosarcoma where similar histologic changes have been observed.