Patients with complete atrioventricular septal defects (CAVSD) frequently present with severe heart failure which cannot be controllable medically and pulmonary hypertension in infancy. Just a small number survives without early surgical treatment. For this reason the definitive repair is indicated to improve the disease's natural history. However many factors are responsible for a still high surgical mortality in this condition. In the present study the surgical experience in the correction of CAVSD is reviewed in order to identify potential statistically important risk factors for operative death. Between January 1974 and December 1990,52 patients with complete atrioventricular septal defects underwent definitive surgical repair at The Royal Brompton and National Heart and Lung Institute. They were retrospectively studied and the following variables analysed: age, weight, sex, year of the operation, Down's syndrome, atrioventricular valve regurgitation, previous pulmonary artery banding, associated anomalies, systolic pulmonary artery pressure, double "mitral" valve orifice, Rastelli's classification, circulatory arrest, and the surgical technique (1 x 2 patches). All this variables were studied by the univariate analysis and, to determine which factors were independently responsible for the operative risk, multivariate analysis with logistic regression was applied. Multivariate analysis showed that the low weight at operation an 1 patch technique significantly increased surgical mortality.
atrioventricular septal defect; atrioventricular septal defect