Resection of postinfarction left ventricular aneurysm with and without revascularization.

Twenty-four patients had resection of their ventricular aneurysm and 29 had resection plus revascularization. Sixty percent of the patients received no blood in the heart lung machine during surgery or at any time during hospitalization. One of 24 patients with ventricular resection and two of 29 patients with resection plus revascularization died during hospitalization, for an overall mortality of 5.7%. Fifty of the 53 patients had an ejection fraction of 0.4 or less and 23 of these had an ejection fraction of 0.2 or less. Survival rate was 75.5% at four years for all 53 patients compared to only 12% of patients alive at five years with medical treatment. For the patient with a large ventricular aneurysm, resection and myocardial revascularization can be performed with a low risk even for the patient with poorly functioning residual myocardium.