[Cardiac surgery in patients older than 60 years (author's transl)].

If indicated cardiac surgery can be performed in geriatric patients with success. Among 525 own patients there were 63 older than 60 years (12%), especially patients with stenosis and/or incompetence of aortic or mitral valve, instable angina pectoris, and certain congenital malformations (atrial septal defect). The poor prognosis of these diseases in the elderly must be compared with the higher early mortality in surgically treated aged patients.