Surgical repair of congenital mitral valve malformations.

Surgical development of mitral valve repair techniques in pediatric patients has been slow because of the great variety in the presentation of congenital mitral valve malformations and the still unknown growing effect over the complex mitral valve apparatus. The aim of this study is to review our early an mid-term institutional outcomes in surgical repair of congenital mitral valve malformations. We studied retrospectively 14 patients with surgical repair of congenital mitral valve malformations in a 5 year period. Clinical and echocardiographic follow-up at a mean of 25 months was performed in all cases. Operative morbidity was 77% and operative mortality 7%. There were no late deaths. Clinical functional class stratification at the mid-term improved in 73% of survivors and did not change in the remaining 27%. Freedom from reoperation for mitral valve prosthetic replacement due to mitral valve repair failure was 84% at 30 days and 77% at 3.5 years. Surgical repair is probably the best technique option in the treatment of congenital malformations of the mitral valve, and transesophageal intraoperatory echocardiography must be highly recommended for evaluation of results.