Assessment of site and severity in congenital aortic stenosis.

Forty patients with congenital aortic valve stenosis under the age of 30 years, and 21 patients with discrete subvalvar aortic stenosis have been studied; the number excludes patients who had aortic stenosis associated with other intracardiac defects. The ages of the patients ranged between 4 and 29 years in those with valve steno- sis and between 3 and 44 years in those with discrete subvalvar stenosis. Thirty-three of the patients with valvar stenosis and all 21 patients with discrete sub- valvar stenosis required surgical relief and 52 of the 54 patients were treated by open operation under cardio- pulmonary bypass. No patients have been included who were studied before 1961, and phonocardiograms were available in all for correlation with the clinical auscultatory findings.