Long-term follow-up of patients having cardiac catheterization and cardiac operation. Small community hospital results before and after surgery program.

We followed, for a mean period of 67 months, 710 unselected consecutive cases of cardiac catheterization. Catheterizations were done on 298 patients without an in-house cardiac surgery team. When a cardiac operation was required, patients in this group were referred to a distant university medical center and were followed up after 49 and again at 103 months. After the community hospital's surgical team was established, 412 patients were catheterized and follow-up carried out for 45 months. Results show that patients in a community hospital without an in-house cardiac surgery team can be catheterized with low risk, then transferred safely to a distant center for surgical treatment without interim mortality and with good long-term results.