The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Vol 77, 191-201, Copyright © 1979 by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery and The Western Thoracic Surgical Association
Surgical management of straddling atrioventricular valve
IF Tabry, DC McGoon, GK Danielson, RB Wallace, AJ Tajik and JB Seward
Corrective operations were attempted in 10 patients with straddling
atrioventricular valve (SAVV), and successful palliative operations were
performed in another nine patients. SAVV occurred as a part of five
different cardiac complexes, and three anatomic types were encountered. The
SAVV was a tricuspid valve in eight patients, right atrioventricular valve
(in univentricular hearts) in five, and mitral valve in six. Four types of
corrective procedures were used: (1) the Rastelli operation, (2) isolated
closure of the universally present ventricular septal defect by a patch
deviating around the straddling portion of the SAVV, (3) replacement of the
SAVV with or without insertion of an extracardiac conduit, and (4) closure
of the SAVV plus right atrium-pulmonary artery anastomosis (modified Fontan
procedure). All three hospital deaths occurred in patients managed by
replacement of SAVV and extracardiac conduit insertion (technique 3). This
experience allows preliminary speculation about preferred methods of
surgical management.