Successful Valve Replacement in an Infant with Congenital Mitral Stenosis

Abstract

CONGENITAL mitral stenosis, sufficiently severe to cause recurrent heart failure and syncopal episodes in infancy, is rarely compatible with life beyond two years of age.¹ Except for 1 reported case of recovery following "blind" finger fracture of a stenotic valve in a three-month-old baby,² all patients in the infant age group have failed to survive attempts at surgical correction. Of 15 patients with this isolated anomaly for whom surgery was attempted, the 4 other survivors were six years of age or older. The present case is reported because it demonstrates the feasibility of prolonged extracorporeal circulatory bypass in a small . . .