Aortic valvotomy in the treatment of congenital aortic stenosis.

Forty patients aged 1.5-23 (mean 11) years underwent open aortic valvotomy for congenital aortic stenosis. Mean preoperative peak aortic gradient for the group was 88 (SD +/- 24) mmHg. Follow-up data was available on all patients for a total of 269 patient-years (means 6.6 year). There was no early mortality, and only one (2.5%) late death. During the follow-up period 3 patients (7.5%) required aortic valve replacement. Actuarial survival curves predict a 7 year survival of 95.7 (SE +/- 8.4%) for all patients, and a freedom from reoperation rate at 6 years of 8.7 (SE +/- 9.3)%. Symptomatic results in the survivors were excellent (97.5% NYHA Class I). Data from this series compares favourably with the literature which is reviewed for a total of 1136 patients undergoing open aortic valvotomy.