GUIDANT CORPORATION
                                  
                            Exhibit 99.1
                                  
         Factors Possibly Affecting Future Operating Results

     From time to time, the Company may publish forward-looking statements 
relating to such matters as anticipated financial performance, business 
prospects, technological developments, new products, research and development
activities and similar matters.  These statements may also be made from time 
to time by Company spokespersons.  The Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for forward-looking statements.  In order 
to comply with the terms of the safe harbor, the Company notes that a variety
of factors could cause the Company's actual results and experience to differ 
materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in
the Company's forward-looking statements.  The risks and uncertainties that 
may affect the operations, performance, development and results of the 
Company's business include the following:

1.   Economic factors over which the Company has no control,
including changes in inflation, interest rates and foreign
currency exchange rates.

2.   Delays and uncertainties in the regulatory approval process
in the United States and other countries, resulting in lost
market opportunities.

3.   Unexpected safety or efficacy concerns arising with respect
to marketed products, whether or not scientifically justified,
leading to product recalls, withdrawals or declining sales.

4.   Unexpected interruptions of manufacturing operations as a
result of regulatory enforcement actions by the FDA or other
regulatory authorities.

5.   The difficulties and uncertainties inherent in new product
development, including new products that appear promising during
development but fail to reach the market as a result of safety or
efficacy concerns, inability to obtain necessary regulatory
approvals, excessive costs to manufacture, infringement of
patents or other intellectual property rights of others, or
technological advances by a competitor of the Company.

6.   Litigation and other legal factors which could preclude
commercialization of products or negatively affect the level of
sales or profitability of existing products, including
unanticipated litigation of product liability claims, antitrust
litigation, environmental matters and patent disputes.

7.   Future difficulties obtaining necessary components or
materials used in manufacturing the Company's products.

8.   Future difficulties obtaining or the inability to obtain
appropriate levels of product liability insurance.

9.   Competitive factors including the ability of the Company to
obtain patent rights or other intellectual property rights
sufficient to keep competitors from marketing competing products,
the introduction of new products or therapies by competitors or
scientific or medical developments that render the Company's
products obsolete, uneconomical or otherwise non-competitive or
the acquisition of patents by competitors that prevent the
Company from selling a product or including key features in the
Company's products.

10.  Governmental factors including laws and regulations and
judicial decisions that affect the regulation of medical devices,
product liability, health care reform or tax laws.

11.  Health care industry factors, including increased customer
demands for price concessions, reductions in third-party
(Medicare, Medicaid, private health care insurance and managed
care plans) reimbursement levels for procedures using the
Company's products and limits imposed by customers on the number
of manufacturers or vendors which the customer will purchase
products from.

12.  Accounting requirements to write off obsolete inventory or
goodwill which reduces reported earnings or changes in accounting
standards applicable to the Company.

13.  Internal factors such as retention of key employees, change
in business strategies and the impact of restructuring and
business combinations.

14.  The ability of the Company to implement its strategy that
includes the potential acquisition of one or more businesses.