Widespread intracardiac surgery of rheumatic heart disease has brought to medical attention a puzzling postoperative complication, usually designated the "postcommissurotomy syndrome" and often considered to represent reactivation of rheumatic fever. Herein are reported instances of an identical complication following intrapericardial surgery of congenital heart disease. It is suggested that the delayed febrile pleuropericardial reaction represents a traumatic pericarditis and that a preferable name for it is the postpericardiotomy syndrome.

The prognosis for the patient with pulmonic stenosis was analyzed from a study of 100 current patients, with long-term observations on 58 of them. Congestive heart failure occurred in seven, all of whom had severe stenosis. Subacute bacterial endocarditis developed in another seven, even when the stenosis was less marked. With appropriate medical supervision of those with mild stenosis who have no cardiac disability, and open-heart surgery for those with more severe obstruction, the outlook for the patient with pulmonary stenosis should be a full and active life.

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