PURPOSE: Analise the incidence of cardiac rupture within the patients received in our hospital with the diagnosis of AMI in a period of 10 years and try to identify cases when the cardiac rupture can be submitted to a successful approach. METHODS: 9162 patients were received by INCOR with the diagnosis of AMI in the period from January 1983 to december 1993. From these patients 1.05% had cardiac rupture as an ischaemic complication of the myocardium infarction. The average of age was 69.5 years and showing a predominance of white people (93.75%) and female sex (55.3%). Data from patients include clinical history, complementary investigations, drugs used in the treatment and surgical or anatomopathological findings. The cardiac ruptures were classified as acute and sub-acute, according to literature. RESULTS: We found 72 cases of acute myocardial rupture with a mortality rate of 98.6% and 24 cases of sub-acute myocardial rupture with 41.6% of deaths. Four patients were operated on acute rupture and 15 patients were operated on subacute rupture. The post surgery survival was 78.9%. The patients who had a successful thrombolitic therapy, 76.4% died while the others who received routine therapy, 86.1 % passed away. Once the thrombolitic therapy was given until an hour the mortality was 33.3%; from 3 to 6 hours it was 60% and after 6 hours it was 100%. When it turns to the lenght of time of the onset of the cardiac rupture after I AM treatment, it happend after 5 days just in 5.9% of the patients who received trombolitic agents but in 40.5% of the patients with the routine therapy. CONCLUSIONS: We recognized the importance and the necessity of a immediate action for the patient with cardiac rupture even in sub-acute cases when 30% of the patients with an echographic probability of having a progression of the transmural ischaemic area die. In acute ruptures the situation is dramatic and survical depends on logistic factors. In sub-acute conditions however, new sutureless techniques without using extra-corporeal circulation are now available and they will have a huge importance in the treatment of this extremely serious complication of AMI.
myocardial infarction; thrombolitic agents