Should repair of partial atrioventricular septal defect be delayed until later in childhood?

Surgical repair of partial atrioventricular septal defects (AVSD) has been successful for more than 60 years. However, recent data from the Pediatric Heart Network show that 31% of patients have moderate or severe left atrioventricular valve regurgitation (LAVVR) at follow-up. Previously, our institution found that only 9% of patients had more than moderate LAVVR at the last follow-up. Our objective was to determine the long-term outcomes after repair of partial AVSD in the current era. We reviewed all patients with partial AVSD who had primary biventricular repair from January 1995 to June 2011 at our institution. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the survival free of an event, and factors were evaluated for an association with each outcome using the log-rank test. All 105 patients with partial AVSD who had surgery during this period were evaluated. The median age at surgery was 7.9 years. The overall survival rate at 1 year was 97%. Median follow-up was 5.3 years (interquartile range 1.7 to 11.1). At 3 years, the survival rate free from reoperation was 89%. Thirteen patients required reoperations with the most common reason being LAVVR. A total of 10 patients developed more than moderate LAVVR with a cumulative incidence of 8% by 2 years. The discrepancy with the Pediatric Heart Network data may be due to the later age of operation for patients in our cohort suggesting that elective repair of partial AVSD should be deferred until children are somewhat older (ages 5 to 8 years). Neither patient age (p = 0.11) nor severity of preoperative LAVVR (p = 0.16) were identified as statistically significant risk factors. In conclusion, there is less morbidity and mortality after surgical repair for partial AVSD.