Patient profile and follow-up in medically and surgically treated elderly adults with myocardial infarction

We followed 23 elderly patients (age 75 years or older) with previous myocardial infarctions for an average of 22.4 months after cardiac catheterization. The mortality rate for the medically treated patients was 13%, and 28% for the surgically treated patients. Improvement in anginal symptoms over the follow-up period from the time of catheterization for the entire group was 50%. However, 100% of the surviving surgically treated patients were symptomatically improved with a mean improvement of 1.6 New York Heart Association functional class levels. The medically treated patients remained unchanged in their functional activity level. Catheterization mortality and morbidity were both zero in this group of 23 elderly patients.