Surgical procedures involving cardiopulmonary bypass in patients aged 70 or older.

Cardiac surgery was performed in 27 patients whose ages ranged from 70 to 78 years (mean, 72). In 17 of these patients, the operation was coronary artery bypass grafting without other procedures. There were 3 operative deaths (17.6 percent) but no late deaths during a mean follow-up period of 14 months, and all the 14 surviving patients were improved symptomatically. In the other 10 of the 27 patients, the operation was valve replacement. There was no operative mortality among the 6 aortic valve patients and 1 operative death among the 4 mitral valve patients; the corresponding late deaths were 2 and 1, respectively, during a mean follow-up period of 41.3 months. Improvements in operative management and improved criteria for the selection of patients should afford benefits and risks for elderly cardiac patients similar to those for younger cardiac patients.