Ruptured Ventricle

Spontaneous rupture of the ventricle has been recog- nized as a cause of sudden death at least since the time of Harvey, who described a case (Willis, 1847). Many papers have been written in modern times concerning its incidence and pathogenesis. Krumbhaar and Crowell (1925) published a series of 35 cases (with an analysis of over 600 from the literature), and this series was supplemented by Davenport (1928), bringing its number to 92. The whole series had more male than female cases and the majority were elderly. The authors found that rupture occurred most often on the anterior surface of the left ventricle, and they demonstrated that severe coronary artery disease with occlusion was almost invariably the underlying cause.