Because the major topic for discussion at the meeting this year is the heart it seems opportune to review the cases of valvular disease in which surgical treatment has been used. In summarizing these cases, we shall attempt to evaluate the general idea of subjecting such disorders to surgical therapy and we shall also attempt to emphasize the problems that must in the future be overcome to make surgical procedures on the cardiac valves useful and beneficial.
Operation has been performed in twelve cases of chronic valvular disease of the heart. These cases have been reported in detail except the last two in which we performed the operation. For the details of these procedures, the reader is referred to the original reports.
SUMMARY OF CASE REPORTS
The table shows, in chronological order, the cases in which operation has been performed.Case 1 (Doyen1).—A woman, aged 20, had a condition which