Postoperative Follow-Up of Patients with Ventricular Septal Defect

Abstract

This study deals with 341 patients who underwent operative correction of ventricular septal defect at the University of Minnesota Hospitals from 1954 to 1960. Seventy-one patients (21%) died during operation or in the immediate postoperative period; another 30 patients (9%) died following discharge from the hospital and as late as 14 years after operation. One hundred-forty patients had postoperative cardiac catheterizations, 28 of whom were catheterized more than five years after operation. Postoperative hemodynamic data were compared with available preoperative data and show no significant change in total pulmonary resistance. Although the majority of our survivors are asymptomatic, we believe that periodic postoperative clinical and laboratory evaluation is important to the continued well-being of the patient.