[Views of patients after open heart surgery]

Twenty patients, selected at random, were followed up by means of interviews and questionnaires before and after open-heart surgery. Nine were professional or business people, two were office clerks, four were manual labourers and five were unemployed. The operative procedures consisted of valve replacement in eight patients, aortocoronary bypass in nine and correction of congenital cardiopathy in three. Anxiety factors before the operation centred around the fear of death (55%), invalidity (15%) and convalescence (10%). No anxiety was found in 20%. The family proved to be a negative factor in 31%, especially in wives of professionals. In the intensive care unit, 47% of patients complained of the noise and 26% of the nursing during the night shift; only 21% complained of pain. More than 70% of the patients appreciated the support of the interviewer, and especially the continuity of the follow-up throughout the hospital and convalescence phases.