[Pulmonary complications in the surgery of advanced stages of mitral stenosis]

Pulmonary complications in late terms of mitral stenosis were studied by clinico-functional and patho-morphological investigations of lungs in 51 patients operated for mitral stenosis of the IV-V stage, with an additional retrospective analysis of autopsy records and case histories of 163 patients with mitral stenosis. It was noted that pulmonary complications in the postoperative period at late stages of mitral stenosis as a rather frequent event considerably aggravate the prognosis of surgery and are responsible for 40% of lethal outcomes. The pulmonary complications were found to be related to the preceding background of destructive changes in the lung tissue associated with lowered functional indices of the external respiration.