title: Closed Mitral Commissurotomy During Pregnancy in East Africa.
abstract: Cardiac surgeons traveling to East Africa on humanitarian surgical missions treat a large number of people of all ages with rheumatic heart disease. A patient with severe mitral stenosis with pulmonary edema in the second trimester of pregnancy was treated successfully with closed mitral commissurotomy in a hospital in rural Kenya. An operation from the late 1940s may regain prominence more than 70 years later in areas of the world with a high incidence of rheumatic heart disease and limited cardiology and cardiac surgery resources.
authors: Maine Medical Center Cardiovascular Institute, Portland, Maine; Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: kramer@mmc.org.
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Kramer
authors: Maine Medical Center Cardiovascular Institute, Portland, Maine; Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors: Reed
authors: R
authors: Quinn
authors: Department of Surgery, Tenwek Hospital, Bomet, Kenya.
authors: Agneta
authors: A
authors: Odera
authors: Maine Medical Center Cardiovascular Institute, Portland, Maine.
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Groom
authors: Department of Anesthesia, Maine Medical Center, Portland, Maine.
authors: Nancy
authors: N
authors: Boulanger
authors: Department of Critical Care Medicine, Maine Medical Center, Portland, Maine.
authors: Eric
authors: E
authors: Gunnoe
authors: Department of Surgery, Tenwek Hospital, Bomet, Kenya.
authors: Russell
authors: R
authors: White
mesh_terms: D000351:Africa, Eastern; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008943:Mitral Valve / Q000601:surgery*; D008946:Mitral Valve Stenosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011249:Pregnancy Complications, Cardiovascular / Q000601:surgery*; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D055815:Young Adult