Sudden death due to primary mediastinal hemangiosarcoma in a canine

Abstract

Hemangiosarcomas are tumors derived from the vascular endothelium and can occur in any vascularized surface of the organism, although the primary presentation at the mediastinal level is not frequent. We introduce the case of a 7-year-old male crossbreed dog that died suddenly after a single episode of vomiting. At necropsy the animal presented serous-bloody fluid in the abdominal cavity, hepatomegaly and splenomegaly. Disorders in the thoracic cavity included hydropericardium and hydrothorax with serous-bloody appearance. The main macroscopic finding was a mass without anatomical continuity with the heart, rested on the right atrium; and related to the mediastinum immediately cranial to the heart. The histopathological diagnosis was capillary hemangiosarcoma, concluding that the cause of death was due by the cardiovascular disorders that this mass caused by compression of the cardiac basis. Although mediastinal hemangiosarcoma is a rare tumor, it must be included in the differential diagnosis of causes of pleural effusion, pericardial effusion and those disorders associated with cardiac pathologies that cause cardiac tamponade. This is the second case report of a primary mediastinal hemangiosarcoma, and in our knowledge the first directly associated with the sudden death of the patient.