The repair of atrioventricular septal defects in infancy.

Two (3%) of 72 patients undergoing repair of atrioventricular septal defects, 1984-September 1985, died in hospital, and among the 58 patients with isolated atrioventricular septal defect, one (2%) died in hospital. One (3%) of the 30 patients with isolated atrioventricular septal defects undergoing repair in the first year of life died. The absence of an incremental risk of young age is a continuation of the trend demonstrated in a parametric analysis of the earlier 1967-1982 experience (n = 310). The hospital mortalities were similar in 1984-September 1985 after repair of partial and complete atrioventricular septal defects, again a continuation of the earlier trend as is the lessened hospital mortality (7%) in the current era among patients with major associated cardiac anomalies. The continuity of results in the two eras, and the predictability of the results in the current era from equations developed from the earlier one, give a high degree of confidence in the inference that primary repair in the first year of life is advisable for most patients with atrioventricular septal defects. Ten-year survival of such patients operated upon currently is predicted to be 99 and 95% for partial and complete atrioventricular septal defects, respectively.