OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the evolution of under 15-year-old patients suffering from mitral valve reflux submitted to mitral valve repair surgery. METHOD: A total of 117 under 15-year-old patients, submitted to mitral valve plasty from May 1980 to November 2001 were evaluated. Their ages ranged from 1 to 15 years old, with a mean age of 10 years. Seventy-four patients (63.2%) were female. The most common etiology was rheumatic disease (81.2%). Eighty-seven patients (74.4%) presented with mitral valve reflux and 30 (25.6%) also suffered from stenosis. Other diseases were associated in 28 patients (23.9%) with aortic valve disease being the most common (13.7%). Several techniques were employed in the valve repair such as the shortening or lengthening of the chordae tendineae and papillectomy. RESULTS: The late evolution demonstrated that 96.6% of the patients survived and 88.9% retained their native valves. Fifteen patients (12.8%) underwent reoperations. The mitral valve was remodeled in all patients, with Gregori-Braile rings used in 69 (58.9%) of the patients and Carpentier rings in 35 (29.9%). The most commonly used techniques were shortening of the chordae tendineae in 66 patients (56.4%), and commissurotomy and/or papillectomy in 30 patients (25.6%). There was one hospital death (0.9%) and three late deaths (2.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Reconstruction surgery to treat reflux of the mitral valve is possible, presenting results that support its use in under 15-year-old patients.
Mitral valve; Mitral reflux