Surgical salvage of heart rupture: report of two cases and review of the literature.

Two patients who sustained cardiac rupture complicating recent myocardial infarction were salvaged by expeditious diagnosis and surgical treatment. The cases of 9 other similar patients have been reported in the English-language literature. The cases of these 11 patients were reviewed in an attempt to find common clinical, pathological, and therapeutic features that might have been instrumental in the successful outcome of this usually fatal complication.