Patch repair of postinfarction pseudo- and subepicardial aneurysm of the left ventricle

Left ventricular pseudo-aneurysm and subepicardial aneurysm are rare compli cations of myocardial infarction. However, the prognosis of medical treatme nt is extremely poor and the operative procedure is controversial We experi enced 3 consecutive patients with this unusual left ventricular aneurysm, a nd described the clinical presentation, operative procedure and its result in these patients. The interval from myocardial infarction to discovering a neurysmal formation is short. The term was within a month. In all patients, the papillary muscle was in the proximity of the orifice of the aneurysm. Patch repair of these unusual left ventricular aneurysms may be effective f or improvement of left ventricular function without mitral regurgitation.