[The treatment of post-infarction interventricular septal rupture]

From 1976 to 1988, 15 patients with septal rupture after acute myocardial infarction were admitted to our department of Cardiovascular Surgery. Fourteen patients were operated on. In 8 cases, surgical correction was carried out in the acute phase (delay: less than 10 days). Operative mortality was 36%. Patch loosening was observed in 4 patients who were operated on in the acute phase. Five patients are still in life with a survival of 5 months to 5 years. This report deals with the risk factors, determinant for survival: localization of the myocardial infarction and the septal rupture, preoperative clinical and hemodynamical status of the patient, persistence of a residual shunt and severity of coronary atherosclerosis.