Causes of death, right ventricular hypertrophy, and congenital heart disease in scoliosis.

Among the causes of death of 43 scoliotics were 5 directly due to complications of congenital heart disease. Over half (57.9%) of the remaining 38 died of cardiac or respiratory causes. The paralytic scolitoics tended to die of pneumonia or respiratory failure, while the nonparalytic scoliotics died of cardiac failure. Right ventricular hypertrophy was present in 65% of the 17 subjects examined postmortem. Electrocardiographic evidence of right ventricular hypertrophy correlated well with the postmortem findings. The vital capacity was less than 1.75 liters in 84% of the dead subjects. The case records of a further 719 living scoliotics were examined for evidence of congenital heart disease. This was found in: 34 (4.5%) of the whole group of 762, 6.9% of the congenital ; 3.4% of the idiopathic scoliotics; 22.7% of those with Marfan's syndrome.