Mid-term Survival and Quality of Life of Elderly Patients Undergoing Open Heart Surgery

The purposes of the investigators study is to examine the overall survival and quality of life in elderly patients (> 75 years) undergoing open heart surgery at Hadassah medical center between 2008-2011. All alive patients will be phone interviewed using the 36-item short form health survey. Results will be compared to similar health survey results (36-SF)obtained from a group of Israeli adults who had no open heart surgery (controlled group). The investigators hypothesize that elderly patients achieve improvement in quality of life after open heart surgery with acceptable operative morbidity and mortality.