Pregnancy Following Closed Mitral Valvuloplasty

One hundred and thirty-nine women who underwent closed mitral valvuloplasty and subsequently became pregnant have been followed up for 1 to 17 years (mean, 10 years) following surgery. The overall postoperative course of these women was not altered by childbearing, when compared with the courses of the other patients in the series of which they are a part, and when a subgroup of 113 of the 139 women was compared with a matched control group. A review of five deaths which occurred in relation to pregnancy revealed that in at least three cardiac management was inadequate. Physicians as well as patients often wrongly consider surgery for valvular disease curative and do not apply the usual careful treatment that all patients with cardiac disease should receive.