Atrioventricular canal: modified single patch technique.

A single surgeon experience using a modified single patch technique for the repair of 128 patients with complete atrioventricular canal is presented. Thirty-day mortality was 1.6%. Follow-up of these patients has shown no incidence of significant residual ventricular septal defect, a 2.3% incidence of reoperation on the mitral valve, and no instances of left ventricular outlet obstruction requiring resection in the follow-up period. Comparisons are drawn between these results and the author's own experience with repair of complete atrioventricular canal using a two-patch technique (46 cases) and repair of partial atrioventricular canal (126 cases) to shed light on late valve function and left ventricular outlet obstruction in all groups.