Rupture of the Interventricular Septum

Abstract

AMONG the complications that may plague the patient with myocardial infarction, there are few more dramatic or serious than rupture through an infarct involving the interventricular septum. To be sure, it is a rare phenomenon, but when it does occur the subsequent rapid course to termination frequently makes clinical detection difficult if not impossible. However, when time permits and one is aware of the syndrome, the antemortem diagnosis can readily be made.In 1845 the syndrome was first reported by Latham.¹ There were occasional reports in the literature up to 1923, when Brunn² described 2 cases and recorded the first . . .