SCIENCE FILE: An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment. : Heart Defect Surgery Helps Middle-Aged, Study Finds

Fixing a hole in the heart’s upper pumping chambers can save lives even when the birth defect is not discovered until middle age, a study concludes. The problem, called atrial septal defect, occurs in about 50 of every 100,000 births. When it is discovered in the young, surgeons routinely fix it with open-heart surgery, and patients can look forward to normal life spans.

But physicians have questioned the efficacy of surgical repair when the birth defect is not discovered until middle age and later. German surgeons reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on 84 patients who had the defect repaired after age 40 and on 95 who were treated with medicine alone. After nine years of follow-up, those who received surgery were one-third less likely to die than those who did not.