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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiovascular Surgery
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2024.1454649

LONG-TERM OUTCOMES OF MITRAL VALVE REPAIR IN CHILDREN

Provisionally accepted
Osman N. Tuncer Osman N. Tuncer 1,2*Serkan Ertugay Serkan Ertugay 1Mehseti Axundova Mehseti Axundova 1Ertürk Levet Ertürk Levet 1Yüksel Atay Yüksel Atay 1
  • 1 Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Bornova, Türkiye
  • 2 Ege University, Bornova, İzmir, Türkiye

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    BACKGROUNDː Mitral Valve Disease in children presents unique challenges due to the wide range of associated pathologies and the complexities of pediatric cardiac anatomy. Mitral valve repair in this demographic is preferred over replacement due to the drawbacks associated with prosthetic valves in young patients, such as the need for longterm anticoagulation and issues with prosthetic size and growth METHODSː This retrospective study reviewed pediatric patients under 18 years who underwent mitral valve repair between January 2002 and December 2023. Exclusion criteria included patients with atrioventricular septal defects or single-ventricle physiology. Surgical outcomes were assessed using preoperative and postoperative transthoracic echocardiography, with follow-up data analyzed via Kaplan-Meier survival estimates RESULTSː The study included 47 patients with a median age of 4 years. Surgical techniques varied based on the specific mitral valve pathology. The overall early mortality was 6.3%, and the one and ten-year survival rates were 93.6±3.6% and 91.4±4.1%, respectively. Most patients showed improved or stable postoperative cardiac function during a median follow-up of 105 months. Notably, the rate of freedom from re-operation at ten years was 85.1±6.9%, highlighting the durability of the surgical interventions.CONCLUSIONSː Mitral valve repair in children demonstrates favorable long-term outcomes with low mortality and reoperation rates, particularly when performed at an older age to accommodate growth and avoid the complexities of smaller, more delicate cardiac structures. These findings suggest that mitral valve repair should be considered a viable and effective option for managing pediatric MVD, with a personalized approach essential for optimizing outcomes.

    Keywords: Mitral Valve Annuloplasty, Cardiac Surgical Procedures, Mitral regurgitation, congenital heart disease, mitral stenosis (MS)

    Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 10 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tuncer, Ertugay, Axundova, Levet and Atay. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Osman N. Tuncer, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Bornova, Türkiye

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