Objective: To evaluate the diagnosis and surgical outcomes of atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) in Children.
Methods: Two hundred and thirty nine consecutive patients accepted surgery for biventricular correction of AVSD from 2003 to 2007 were enrolled. There were 121 males and 118 females,the age ranged between 1 month to 14 years. Angiogram data, records of surgery, echocardiogram data of pre-surgery assessment,2 days post surgery and short-term follow up and out-patient data were collected.
Results: The number of patients needing pre-surgery angiogram was decreased in the past five years. The diagnosis of 31 patients (13%) was altered after surgery. Early mortality rate was 2.1% and 5 infants died after surgery. Six patients had reoperation during the short-term follow-up, and 3 of them had severe left atrioventricular valve regurgitation. Most patients presented inferior left atrioventricular valve(LAVV) function in short-term follow up (from 3 months to 50 months after surgery ,the average follow up time was 13.5 months), while infants had valve repair besides cleft suture presented subsequently worse LAVV function postoperatively.
Conclusions: Pre-operative echocardiogram is recommended for patients with AVSD. Early death and reoperation rate following surgical repair is acceptable, but left atrioventricular valve regurgitation remained significant among these patients. The outcome of valve repair in patients with AVSD is not satisfactory and better procedure of the valve repair is needed.