The Effect of Treatment on Mortality Rates in Severe Hypertension

Introduction The mortality rates among our patients treated with oral ganglion blocking agent and hydralazine have been here compared with the mortality rates reported in the literature as being associated with other antihypertensive regimens, particularly surgical sympathectomy. The comparison was made difficult by the differing criteria used by various authors in grading the severity of the disease prior to therapy. Because effective antihypertensive drugs have been used for relatively short periods of time, they can be adequately evaluated only in seriously ill patients with significant and predictable mortality rates during the available observation period. Our series consisted of all the previously untreated nonuremic adult patients who received the combination of ganglion blocking agent and hydralazine before or during August, 1953, under our supervision. The fate of each was considered exactly four years after he began therapy. All patients who began such combined therapy were included in the overall mortality statistics, regardless