THE NATURAL HISTORY OF ISOLATED PULMONARY STENOSIS

Abstract

The natural history of isolated pulmonary stenosis is largely unknown. Knowledge of this subject has been gained mostly from studying groups of patients of different ages, or from necropsy records, procedures clearly less satisfactory than following up individual cases. Only two authors have reported follow-up studies; Barritt (1954) observed 33 cases (8 have been catheterized) over periods of 5 to 21 years, and Fabricius (1959) followed up 47 of 75 fully-documented cases for periods of between 2 and 10 years, but in both series the patients were mainly children. The advent of successful surgical treatment has made such studies more difficult to pursue.