An Alternative Method for Enlargement of Left Atrioventricular Valvular Annulus at Repeat Prosthetic Valve Replacement in Atrioventricular Septal Defect / 日本心臓血管外科学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

A 10-year-old girl was given a diagnosis of mitral stenosis due to a small prosthetic valve. She had undergone intra-cardiac repair operations for a complete atrioventricular septal defect by a two-patch method at 6 months after birth, and for left atrioventricular valve insufficiency by replacement with a mechanical prosthesis (SJM-HP-17mm) at 2 years of age. The cause of mitral stenosis was considered to be that the existing prosthesis was too small for her body growth. Reoperation was done with a trans-septal approach, but despite the resection of the old prosthesis and peripheral fibrous tissue her left atrioventricular annulus was not big enough to insert a larger prosthesis. We thus cut the previous VSD patch about 1cm toward the apex, and sutured a patch for annular enlargement. After this annular enlargement, we could insert a larger prosthesis (SJM-HP-21mm). Her postoperative course was uneventful. There was no left ventricular outflow obstruction and no worsening of her mild right atrioventricular regurgitation. There are few established procedures for enlargement of a left atrioventricular annulus. Our method presented here is safe and effective for left atrioventricular annular enlargement, but can only be applied to patients with atrioventricular septal defect.