Spontaneous Rupture of a Right Atrial Angiosarcoma and Cardiac Tamponade

Primary cardiac angiosarcoma is a rare disease of difficult diagnosis and poor prognosis frequently associa-ted with recurring hemopericardium. We report the case of a 30-year-old female with a right atrial angiosarcoma and spontaneous rupture to the pericardial cavity, who was diagnosed during an emergency exploratory thoracoto-my, whose indication was cardiac tamponade. This is the 8th case reported in the literature. Clinical findings are discussed and a literature review is provided. Angiosarcoma is a tumor of mesenchymal origin and accounts for approximately 25 % of the malignant tumors of the heart. It preferably appears in the right atrium between the 3rd and 5th decades of life. It is characterized by early local and systemic dissemination, which restricts the indi-cation for surgical resection to a small number of patients