Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 August 2008
Between 1968 and December 1990, 29 patients underwent 33 reoperations for dysfunction of the left atrioventricular valve after correction ofatrioventricular septal defect. Repair of the valve was possible in all 10 patients who, initially, had a common atrioventricular orifice, using straightforward procedures such as closure of the septal commissure and annuloplasties according to Wooler. Additional valvar abnormalities (double orifice; fenestration of leaflets; malpositioned or malformed papillary muscles; and additional clefts) were rare in this group of patients. In contrast, these anomalies were frequent in the 19 patients who, initially, had separate right and left atrioventricular valves.