Congenital heart disease. Changing concepts in the surgical treatment.

Probably the most important continuing advance in the treatment of congenital heart disease is the ever-diminishing risk of operations on the open heart. The uncomplicated septal defect or valvular stenosis is now corrected under direct vision with essentially the same risk as that which attends the routine operation for patent ductus arteriosus. Perfusion systems, and corrective heart operations, are now available for any patient who weighs 10 kilograms or more; palliative operations are often prescribed for critically ill patients weighing less than 10 kilograms.

Open heart operations, results in 100 consecutive cases, using extracorporeal circulation.

In one hundred consecutive cases in which operations were done on the heart with the surgical field exposed to view and circulation was shunted to extracorporeal apparatus, there were six deaths. None were attributable to the by-pass procedure. The lesions were of various kinds, congenital and acquired.