[Study of the long-term psychological consequences of heart valve prostheses]

The present follow-up period of cardiac surgery allows assessment of the long-term consequences of valvular prostheses, the short-term consequences having already been the object of many studies. 50 patients of both sexes, operated on for aortic or mitral valve disease between 1973 and 1974 were interviewed to assess their degree of psychological adaptation with regard to their cardiac status and the principal factors of adaptation. The position of the prosthetic valve (aortic or mitral) seemed to be of little importance and the prognosis depended rather on sex, age at operation, previous personality, intelligence quotient, postoperative psychiatric complications and the interval between diagnosis of the disease and operation.