[Treatment of early post-infarction ventricular aneurysms by assisted circulation and surgery]

Ventricular aneurysm formation in the 3 months following transmural myocardial infarction is rare but may cause serious complications. Cardiac failure and/or ventricular arrhythmias resistant to medical treatment are indications for ventricular resection. The operative mortality is high in this group of patients. 8 patients with ventricular aneurysms of average volume (124 +/- 117 ml/m2) and very impaired left ventricular function (EF : 21 +/- 10%, akinesia : 53 +/- 10%) were operated on with two early deaths and one death in the 7th post operative month. The long term clinical result was satisfactory in the surviving patients, and confirmed by haemodynamic investigation in two of them. The benefical effects of intra-aortic balloon pumping, used preoperatively in all patients, and associated myocardial revascularisation procedures performed in some of them are discussed.