[Surgical treatment of cardiopathies in the elderly]

We have reviewed hospital mortality and morbidity with cardiac surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass in patients over 75 years, operated during a 5 years period. It is at the expense of a sometimes difficult selection process in favour of patients with a potentially curable cardiac disease as their only problem, and despite substantially increased mortality and morbidity, that the operated elderly can have excellent probability to normalise both life expectancy and quality of life.