Reasons for Cardiac Catheterization before Cardiac-Valve Replacement

IN a recent article in the Journal, St. John Sutton and his associates1 described a study conducted in the Brompton Hospital, London, to determine the usefulness of routine cardiac catheterization before operative replacement of one or both left-sided cardiac valves. Of243 patients analyzed, 184 (76 per cent) had cardiac catheterization and 59 (24 per cent) did not. The operative and two-year mortality and the relief of symptoms were similar in the patients who did and did not have preoperative cardiac catheterization, and no uncorrected valvular lesions became apparent in the two-year follow-up period in the uncatheterized patients. Thus, the . . .