PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTURBANCES ASSOCIATED WITH OPEN HEART SURGERY

In our unit open heart surgery has provided sufficient stress to precipitate post-operative psychological disturbances in a high proportion of patients. In the year before this investigation was begun, 21 of 108 patients developed obvious mental abnormalities post-operatively. Blickenstorfer (1) reported post-operative psychosis in 3 per cent, of 300 patients subjected to open heart surgery, and the same incidence, 3 per cent., was reported by Bolton and Bailey (3) following closed and open heart surgery on 1,500 adult patients. The incidence of mental disturbance in our unit was so much higher that a detailed study of all patients (141) operated on in the unit during a 10-month period appeared to be indicated.