title: Long-term follow-up of patients having cardiac catheterization and cardiac operation. Small community hospital results before and after surgery program.
abstract: 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.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000787:Angina Pectoris / Q000601:surgery; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012017:Referral and Consultation