Uterine fibroids quietly "crawl" into the heart

Uterine fibroids, as female readers know, grow in the uterus. However, Ms. Jiang from Jinhua had her fibroids grow into her heart and was once misdiagnosed as advanced cancer. Recently, she underwent surgery at Zhejiang Second Hospital to remove the 40-centimeter-long fibroid. There are only about 200 cases of this disease reported worldwide, and Zhejiang Second Hospital treated one case 10 years ago.

Is it a heart attack, or is it the spread of cancer?

In June this year, Ms. Jiang went on a trip. On the fifth day, she couldn't bear it anymore. She felt very tired and swollen all over, so she interrupted her trip and went home. She was getting fatter and fatter, and she also had chest tightness, so she went to a local hospital in Jinhua for a checkup.

The hospital suspected that it was a kidney problem, but after the examination, there was no problem. I stayed in the hospital for a few days to rest, and the swelling subsided. I also did a heart ultrasound examination, and the doctor suspected that it was a heart disease.

Her family took her to another hospital for examination. The doctor told her that there was also a huge mass in her pelvis, which was most likely the cancer had spread to her entire body in the late stage.

"I was heartbroken when I heard the news. How could she suddenly have advanced cancer?" said Ms. Jiang's husband. His wife had undergone uterine fibroid removal surgery 10 years ago. The fibroid removed was as big as a duck egg. In the past few years, except for occasional abdominal pain, her health has been fine. The company arranges annual physical examinations and no problems are found. "Doesn't cancer cause weight loss and pain? She doesn't have these obvious symptoms."

Uterine fibroids crawl into the heart along the veins

The family took Ms. Jiang to Zhejiang No. 2 Hospital for treatment.

When the doctor saw the heart ultrasound, he realized that this was not an ordinary disease and had never seen it before, so he invited multiple doctors to consult. After angiography of the right atrium and inferior vena cava, it was found that the mass grew larger as it went down the body, extending into the pelvic cavity. The expert diagnosed that this was a sarcoma that spread from the uterus to the heart.

"Uterine fibroids grow into the uterine veins, then extend along the uterine veins to the inferior vena cava, and then grow along the inferior vena cava into the heart." Liang Tingbo, deputy director of Zhejiang No. 2 Hospital, explained that if Ms. Jiang's fibroids continue to grow, it will block blood flow back to the body and reduce blood supply to the arteries, causing her to suffer from heart and systemic organ failure.

Later, multiple departments including the Department of Thoracic Surgery, General Surgery, Gynecology, and Radiology of Zhejiang Second Hospital worked together to perform a successful operation on her.