Indications for Open-Heart Surgery; Risks and Results

This concise treatise written by a cardiac surgeon for practicing cardiologists, internists, pediatricians, and general practitioners fills an essential role in the growing literature on this subject. The objective is to provide a guide for selection of patients for cardiac surgery. The book deals in a precise and organized way with all lesions of the heart amenable to surgical correction. Indications for operations and results are stressed. Risks have been documented by tables adapted from the experience of major clinics throughout the country. The author wisely omits details of surgical procedure and technique which do not concern the medical practitioner. Different parts of the volume deal with congenital heart disease, acquired valvular disease, and a miscellaneous group of conditions described as degenerative, traumatic, inflammatory, and neoplastic. A chapter is devoted to each major cardiac lesion correctable by operation. For each entity, symptoms, signs, pathology, diagnosis, and medical prognosis are presented in precise clinical language. Written from a wealth of clinical experience the vol¬ ume should appeal to the practicing clinician. Part IV of the text expounds