[Ventricular septal defect as a complication of myocardial infarct].

Between 1978 and 1982 emergency closure of postinfarction ventricular septal defect was performed in 4 patients (51--74 years) on the 3rd-7th day after acute myocardial infarction. All patients had a large left-to-right shunt and were in intractable acute heart failure; all of them survived the operation (3 patients had additional aortocoronary bypass grafts), and follow-up (0.5--4.5 years) was uncomplicated. The favorable clinical and functional results of surgical therapy indicate that postinfarction ventricular septal defects should be operated on even in patients over 70 years of age.