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Two young patients aged 14 and 25 with left ventricular aneurysms are described. In both, a clinical picture initiated by attacks of supraventricular tachycardia led to the discovery of the condition. In the first patient the clinical picture clearly suggested a traumatic aetiology. In the second, the angiographic and histological findings strongly favoured a congenital origin. Both patients underwent successful aneurysmectomy. The literature on the incidence and aetiology of traumatic or congenital ventricular aneurysms is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A successful simultaneous surgical repair of rupture of the interventricular septum and left ventricular aneurysm resulting from myocardial infarction is described. Very few similar cases have been described in the literature and in none was angiocardiography performed before operation. Preoperative angiocardiographic examination to demonstrate a ventricular aneurysm is of major importance in all cases of rupture of the interventricular septum following myocardial infarction. The right heart approach with injection of contrast material into the main pulmonary artery is shown to be the method of choice for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A policy of obtaining a routine chest radiograph in every young patient with unexplained chest pain or dyspnoea led to the diagnosis of 14 cases of spontaneous pneumomediastinum within four years, whereas only two cases from former years could be found retrospectively. One patient had recurrent spontaneous pneumomediastinum, the first case so far reported. Analysis of admission data suggested that this entity may be much more common than is generally believed, and may be second only to spontaneous pneumothorax as a cause of admission of young, healthy individuals experiencing sudden chest pain or shortness of breath. After reviewing the published reports we propose the following definition of spontaneous mediastinal emphysema: the non-traumatic presence of free air in the mediastinum in a patient with no known underlying lung disease. When it occurs without associated pneumothorax it is benign. The incidence of spontaneous pneumomediastinum for the four-year period under study was 1 per 12 850 admissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1966 and 1970 we reviewed 46 consecutive patients undergoing resection for primary carcinoma of the lung, in whom mediastinal lymph node metastases were found at operation. There was one operative death. Five of the remaining 45 patients survived five years--one of 10 cases of large cell carcinoma, one of 19 cases of adenocarcinoma, and three of 12 cases of epidermoid carcinoma. We believe that mediastinal lymph node metastases are not per se a contraindication to resection of epidermoid carcinoma of the lung. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]