Is early surgery always necessary in patients with aortic valve prolapse complicating an Eisenmenger-type ventricular septal defect?
BACKGROUND
The report presents three patients who showed a typically prolapsed aortic cusp with or without aortic regurgitation associated with a malalignment-type perimembranous defect, the so called Eisenmenger-type ventricular septal defect.


RESULTS
Each patient developed spontaneous complete or near closure of the ventricular septal defect without worsening of the aortic regurgitation.


CONCLUSIONS
These cases suggest that prolapsed aortic cusp complicating a malalignment perimembranous ventricular septal defect is not always an absolute indication for early surgery to prevent progressive aortic regurgitation.
Department of Pediatrics, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Japan.
H
H
Tomita
S
S
Fuse
S
S
Chiba
D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001023:Aortic Valve Prolapse / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D006345:Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D018579:Patient Selection; D013997:Time Factors