Intra-aortic balloon pump is a cardiac assist device developed to help in recovery from postcardiotomy heart failure. All patients submitted to intra-aortic balloon pump were followed prospectively at the Instituto do Coração do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo-InCor over a period of 22 months. Although we did not find statistically significant evidence of correlation between mortality and patient data (Surgery done, emergency or not, redo or not, age, gender, medical problem, functional class, cardiac function, clamp, bypass, and support time and complications) the evaluation showed our patient universe in the InCor Institute.