[Atrial septum defect: comparison of pre-and postsurgery echocardiographic data in adults and children].

Echocardiographic data in 13 adults and 17 children before and after surgical closure of an atrial septum defect are compared. Before surgery the enddiastolic dimension of the right ventricle was bigger in children than in adults. Septal motion was paradoxal or abnormal in 92% of adults and 65% of children (NS). Two weeks after surgery the right ventricle had decreased similarly in adults and in children, but often remained dilated. Septal motion was normal in 25% of adults and 76% of children (p less than 0.01). Four months after surgery, the right ventricle dimension was unchanged; septal motion was normal in all children but only in 50% of adults (p less than 0.005). This remaining abnormal septal motion after surgery may be explicable by the long-standing presence before surgery of a major shunt inducing chronic disturbances of right ventricular compliance.