Critical aortic stenosis in the first month of life: surgical results in 26 infants.

Between 1980 and 1989, 26 infants aged less than 1 month underwent open aortic valvotomy for critical aortic stenosis. All had congestive heart failure requiring inotropic agents (58%), ventilation (42%), and/or prostaglandin E1 (35%) preoperatively. Nine patients with isolated aortic stenosis had an operative mortality of 0%, whereas 17 patients with other anatomical lesions had a 47% mortality (p less than 0.01). Univariate analysis failed to identify additional risk factors other than year of operation (p less than 0.05). There were four late deaths, three probably related to arrhythmia (actuarial survival at 113 months = 0.53). Two patients have required late reoperation; neither required valve replacement.