Postoperative Evaluation of Mitral Valve Function

Postoperative cardiovascular studies were carried out in eight patients with ostium primum defect and cleft mitral valve. Apical systolic murmurs were present in all patients, but in seven of them no mitral regurgitation was detected by pulmonary wedge pressure and left ventricular angiography. Surgical repair of the cleft anterior leaflet without resection of subjacent chordae tendineae, as performed in these patients, usually results in a competent mitral valve. Postoperative angiograms showed persistence of the characteristic preoperative deformity of the medial border of the left ventricular outflow tract especially in systole. As illustrated in one of these patients, subaortic obstruction occasionally complicates abnormalities of the atrioventricular valves.