Medical and surgical treatment of rheumatic mitral and aortic valve disease.

A retrospective study of 196 patients with rheumatic mitral and aortic valve disease seen at a district general hospital was carried out. Patients having surgical intervention for their valvular disease had a better survival at 10 years (81 per cent +/- 7 per cent) compared to those managed medically (56 per cent +/- 8.5 per cent). This superiority was maintained, both for survival and symptomatic improvement, when individual valve lesions were considered.