Cardiac surgery in a private hospital. With special reference to coronary artery surgery.

: In a four-year period in a private hospital there were 1396 open heart operations of which 1275 were for isolated coronary artery disease. The various techniques that were used for coronary artery reconstruction were saphenous vein grafts and internal mammary artery grafts, both singly and sequentially, and endarterectomy. The operative mortality for isolated coronary artery surgery was 1.1% and the perioperative infarction rate was 2.1%. When combined with an endarterectomy of the right coronary artery, the mortality was 3% and the infarction rate was 4% (not significant); when combined with endarterectomy of the left anterior descending coronary artery, the mortality was 11.7% (not significant), and the infarction rate was 11.7% (not significant). The operative risk was no higher in patients with poor ventricular function.