Defect of the Atrial Septum in the Elderly

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Abstract
DEFECTS of the atrial septum account for about 18 per cent of all congenital cardiac lesions and are by far the commonest of the defects that permit survival beyond fifty years of age.1 The prognosis for longevity in patients so afflicted is good as compared to that associated with other congenital cardiac defects, even though the average age at death is reportedly thirty-seven to thirty-nine years.2 , 3 In fact, symptoms from such cardiac lesions may never develop, or symptoms of cardiac failure may develop late in life, at a time when the presence of congenital heart disease is least suspected. A . . .