Surgical treatment of mitral stenosis.

Analysis of 239 patients who underwent a commissurotomy for mitral stenosis (196 closed technique, 43 open technique). Total operative mortality was 2%. Long term follow-up is illustrated by an actuarial survival curve and long-term functional results are studied up to 15 years after operations. It allows the authors to consider commissurotomy alone as a good palliative procedure with good functional results in the majority of cases. However, in view of the collected data, they now elect to restudy all the patients 6 years after the primary correction and to perform a heart catheterization to consider appropriate reoperation in some cases.