The Cardiothoracic Department, General Hospital, Kuala Lumpur which was set up in April 1982, deals with a wide range of cardiac disease, general thoracic and also vascular cases. A total of 2,450 operations were performed from April 1982 to February 1987, and 79.3% of these were for cardiac cases (open and closed heart). This paper reports a review of the 1,110 consecutive open heart operations performed by the Department during the stated period.