MITRAL-VALVE REPAIR USING CONTINUOUS WARM BLOOD CARDIOPLEGIA

To achieve satisfactory mitral valve repair, we applied continuous war m blood cardioplegia to seven children with congenital heart disease a ssociated with mitral valve insufficiency, All patients had mild to mo derate mitral valve regurgitation before the operation, The competency of the mitral valve was assessed by injecting test solution into the left ventricle through the mitral valve orifice with the heart beating under warm blood perfusion into the aortic root proximal to the cross -clamp, Repair of the mitral valve was performed under normothermic ca rdiac arrest with continuous antegrade perfusion of warm blood cardiop legia, In all patients, these two procedures could be alternated with ease and safety simply by varying the potassium concentration of cardi oplegia, While satisfactory valve repair was obtained with the initial procedure in I cases, repair was repeated twice in two and three time s in one. There were no operative deaths and no complications directly related to the procedure, Postoperative echocardiography demonstrated good mitral valve function with none to trivial regurgitation in six patients (86%). Continuous warm blood cardioplegia is a useful and saf e tool for mitral valve repair.