Mitral Valve Prosthesis In Childhood

Congenital mitral insufficiency is a rare but grave form of cardiac disease which may occur in various pathological forms. 1-3 It is most frequently encountered as part of a more complex malformation as with ostium primum atrial defect or with a persistent common atrioventricular canal. One of the most unusual forms of congenital mitral insufficiency is that encountered with so-called functionally totally corrected transposition. Recently, at Vanderbilt Medical Center, we had the opportunity to study and to treat surgically by the use of mitral valve prosthesis a child with "mitral" insufficiency associated with corrected transposition but without intracardiac defects that cause shunts. Report of a Case The child was first admitted to Vanderbilt University Hospital as an infant of 5 months in congestive heart failure. The patient was a small underdeveloped female infant in acute respiratory distress. A blowing apical systolic murmur, a short mid-diastolic murmur, a gallop rhythm, and