Partial Atrioventricular Canal Defect and Surgical Treatment

At the Department of Cardiac Surgery of İstanbul University Cardiology Institute, twenty-eight patients with atrioventricular canal defect underwent open heart surgery for repair of partial atrioventricular canal defect. Twenty-five patients had either moderate or severe mitral insufficiency prior to operation. The mitral cleft in the anterior leaflet was repaired in each patient in whom the valve had insufficiency. The atrial septal defect was closed with pericardial patch and the coronary sinus was left in the left atrium in twenty-five patients and in the right atrium in three patients. Postoperatively, only three cases with rithym disturbance were noted among 28 patients and a permanent pacemaker had to be implanted in one patient due to complete A-V block. All the other patients were found to be in class I according to New York Heart Association classification. Five patients had mild mitral insufficiency and the remaining twenty-three had competent mitral valve. These data demonstrate that excellent results from repair of partial atrioventricular canal can be obtained.