Abstract
Congenital cardiovascular defects are not peculiar to childhood. Individual patients with certain anomalies may survive for many years only to experience cardiac decompensation in later life. During the past decade in our institutions fifty-eight patients more than fifty years of age underwent operation for congenital cardiovascular disease. Open heart procedures were necessary in forty-four patients. Seven patients died, resulting in a 12 per cent mortality. The geriatric patients differed from the younger patients in that the elder patients had increased cardiac arrhythmias, degenerative vascular changes, pulmonary emphysema, other acquired diseases, defects permitting hemodynamic compensation for many years, and omission of congenital lesions from diagnostic considerations. Age alone should not be a deterring factor in recommending operative treatment in geriatric patients since congenital defects can be corrected with a mortality comparable to that achieved in younger patients.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
