Surgical treatment of right atrial myxoma.

A 51-year-old man with a large right atrial myxoma underwent emergency surgical resection in our institute. The diagnosis of such tumors can be difficult, and their resection presents difficulties for the placement of the venous cannulae. We used a single cannula in the superior vena cava until fibrillation, and then we inserted a cannula into the inferior vena cava. We present this technique as a method of avoiding embolization.