Cardiac tumor is a rare cause of cerebral embolic infarction which has no established therapeutic strategies. Although some cases were successfully treated by recombinant tissue-plasminogen activator (rt-PA), this article indicates the effectiveness of emergency mechanical thrombectomy for tumorous type of emboli which do not respond to rt-PA. A 34-year-old man presented with ischemic stroke and right middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion by cardiac tumor originating emboli. Intravenous rt-PA therapy was ineffective, but mechanical endovascular thrombectomy using Merci Retriever was successful. His neurological deficit began to improve and good outcome was obtained at discharge. The embolus was histologically identical to a cardiac myxoma, confirmed and treated successfully by surgery later. We report the first successfully treated tumorous embolic stroke case with cardiac tumor by using Merci Retriever. Emergency mechanical thrombectomy would be an option for elastic hard myxoma emboli.
Keywords: cardiac tumor; cerebral infarction; mechanical endovascular thrombectomy; myxoma; thrombectomy.