CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 35, No 1, January – April 2024 AFRICA 33 involving 194 patients who underwent myxoma resection.39 In another study, Cianciulli et al. reported that no 30-day mortality was observed in any of the 53 patients who underwent cardiac myxoma resection.40 Lee et al. reported that the 30-day mortality rate after myxoma resection was 3.2%.28 In our study, 30-day mortality was not observed in any patient. Limitations Our study has some limitations. The most important of these is that due to the retrospective nature of the study, not all necessary information could be accessed and the number of patients was low. In addition, our results may not be generalisable to all other centres since our study was a dual-centre study. Third, we may have missed recurrences in some asymptomatic patients, since echocardiography could not be routinely performed on all patients at regular intervals during the follow-up period. Conclusion We retrospectively analysed 34 patients with cardiac myxomas that were surgically removed over a 16-year period in two centres providing tertiary care and working as cardiac surgery centres. Myxomas are the most common benign tumours of the heart and most commonly originate from the fossa ovalis region of the left atrium. A high index of suspicion is required for diagnosis as most patients are asymptomatic. Cardiac tumours should be considered in patients who frequently present with non-specific symptoms such as weight loss, fatigue, heart failure, arrhythmias and embolism. Echocardiography is an ideal diagnostic tool, as well as for follow up. Emergency surgical treatment is indicated in all diagnosed patients because of risk of sudden death due to intracardiac obstruction and systemic embolic events. Surgical excision of cardiac myxomas in suitable centres and with experienced surgeons carries low operative risk and provides excellent short- and long-term results. 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