Not-so-benign massive cardiac lipoma

Cardiac lipomas are rare and usually benign tumors that often remain asymptomatic throughout one's lifetime. We report a case of a 60-year-old man with a cardiac lipoma diagnosed early in childhood. However, due to the lack of surgical expertise in rural India, the lipoma was not removed. After moving to the United States, he received irregular follow-up with serial chest x-ray and computed tomography, which demonstrated an enlarging lipomatous mass occupying the pericardial space. After remaining asymptomatic for more than 37 years, he presented to the hospital with dyspnea. He underwent a surgical resection but, unfortunately, given the extension of the mass into multiple critical portions of the heart, he ultimately died.