[Early repair of congenital cardiopathies under extracorporeal circulation. Apropos of 158 surgical cases under the age of 5].

A great number of congenital heart diseases are now amenable to treatment before school age. A homogeneous experience of 158 cases operated upon made it possible to make the follow remarks:--The operative mortality before the age of 1 year remains high, in view of the difficulties of ressuscitation, but mainly because of the severity of the heart disease to treat. --Between the ages of 1 and 5 years, the risk decreased with experience, and for the heart diseases most frequently encountered, lethality fell to 2.8% for the last 4 years. One may thus accept to perform, not only necessity operations, but principle operations before school age. The schematic indications in relation with each heart disease were analysed.