Treatment of myocardial infarction in a community hospital coronary care unit. Experience with 1,246 patients

The hospital mortality in 1,246 consecutive acute infarction patients treated in a large community hospital coronary care unit was 14.4%. Of the total, 52.3% showed no evidence of heart failure, 25.8% had mild to moderate failure, 9.9% had pulmonary edema, and 12% developed cardiogenic shock; the mortality in these groups was 2.2%, 7.4%, 8.9%, and 87.2%, respectively. The mortality in the 1,097 patients who did not have cardiogenic shock was 4.5%. Only one patient died as a result of primary ventricular fibrillation (0.08%). The mortality of complete heart block in the absence of cardiogenic shock (8.3%) was not significantly different from that of comparable patients who did not have complete heart block (4.3%). These results are lower than those generally reported.