TITLE:
Intrapericardial Paraganglioma, an Exceedingly Rare Finding: A Case Report
AUTHORS:
Alvaro Altamirano, Roshanak Habibi, Kamaldeep Singh, Govinda Adhikari
KEYWORDS:
Paraganglioma, Intrapericardial, Nonfunctioning
JOURNAL NAME:
Case Reports in Clinical Medicine,
Vol.12 No.7,
July
20,
2023
ABSTRACT: Paragangliomas are rare tumors that arise from the sympathetic or the parasympathetic ganglia. Parasympathetic paragangliomas are usually nonfunctional. They are often found in the pre aortic and paravertebral sympathetic plexus or at the base of the skull. 80% of these are Glomus jugulare and carotid body paragangliomas. Intrapericardial paragangliomas are exceedingly rare. Less than 2% of paragangliomas are found in the chest and most of them are situated in the posterior mediastinum. As such, there are no clear guidelines on how to treat intrapericardial paragangliomas. We present here the case of a patient with an intrapericardial paraganglioma who was evaluated by cardiology, cardiac surgery, and endocrinology. In this case cardiac surgery opted for a conservative approach and did not offer surgery to the patient. There is some literature supporting a surgical approach but no specific guidelines about this have been written. The patient is currently being monitored since she did not have metastatic disease and her paraganglioma was nonfunctioning. With this case we want to add to the body of evidence that this type of cases does not need an urgent surgical approach.