Primary benign schwannoma of the heart

We report herein a case of a 61-year-old woman who was found to have a mass adjacent to the left atrium. The tumor was resected giving least damage to the left atrium on cardiopulmonary bypass with a subsequent histological diagnosis of a schwannoma. Neurogenic tumors comprise 10% to 34% of mediastinal tumors. Nerve sheath tumors are more common in adults than in children, and these are equally malignant in children and adults. Nerve sheath tumors of the heart are extremely rare. Although there are many malignant cardiac neurilemomas reported, only a few cases of benign schwannomas have been reported. We describe a rare primary benign schwannoma of the left atrium.