The Hemodynanic Results of Surgical Correction of Atrial Septal Defects : A Report of Thirty - three Cases

T HE accumulation of accurate iniformiation as regards operative mortality and results of surgery is basic to the advancement of the surgical management of any disease. It has been amply demonstrated by Lewis and Tauflc,1 Swan,2 Gross and associates,3 Bailey and associates,4 Bj6rk and Crafoord,5 Gibbon,6 Shumacker7 and ourselves8 that a number of technics of closure of atrial septal defects can be performed in man. It is likely that no one method in the near future will supplant all other technics at present in use. Advancement of knowledge ill the treatment of this condition depends oln the evaluationl of the results obtained by each of these operative technics. It is the purpose of this paper to present in detail the results of operation ill our first 33 patients with atrial septal defect and left-toright shunt. To Dec. 1, 1955, 59 patients with atrial septal defects and left-to-right shunts, either alone or in combination with right-to-left shunts, have been treated by the atrial-well technic (with two exceptions as noted later ill this paper) at the Mayo Clinic. There have been three deaths in the entire series, including the one death (case 31) in the group reported here. The manner of death in this case during operation has been described in detail in a previous paper,8 in which the patient was listed as case 11. Although all of the patients to be discussed