CONGENITAL MITRAL INCOMPETENCE (CMI) - DI AGNOSIS, PROGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

Between September 1973 and November 1993, 30 children with CMI underwe nt open-heart surgery. The mean age at operation was 6.63 years with a range of 8 months to 14 years. Twenty patients underwent reconstructi ve mitral valvuloplasty; 3 immediate failures and 1 case of stenosis o f Carpentier's ring, occuring 7 years after the operation, were observ ed in this group. Among the 10 patients treated by mitral valve replac ement, there were 4 deaths, including 3 from specific complications of the pros thesis. Conservative mitral surgery provides better results with far fewer complications that mechanical prostheses and must there fore always be attempted as the first-line procedure.