Treatment of Congenital Aortic Stenosis

Thirty-eight patients with congenital valvular aortic stenosis, ages 1 to 21 years, underwent aortic valvotomy between 1957 and 1967. The conditions of 37 patients have been evaluated postoperatively, and the mean duration of follow-up is ten years. There were no operative deaths, but there was one late death attributable to heart disease. Relief of symptoms has been gratifying, and 90% of the patients are asymptomatic currently. Twenty patients have murmurs of aortic regurgitation, and three of these patients have required aortic valve replacement. Postoperative hemodynamic assessments have shown that valvotomy reduced the valvular gradient in each patient. Thus, long-term relief of congenital valvular aortic stenosis may be effected by valvotomy with minimal operative and postoperative risk.