Surgical Experience of Ebstein's Anomaly

From 1969 to 1995, 15 patients with Ebstein's anomaly underwent surgery at Niigata University Hospital. Two patients with an infantile form presented heart failure and cyanosis immediately after birth, and underwent a staged operation resulting in long-term survival in one of them (operative mortality 50%). For 13 patients with the adult form, 14 operations were performed on the tricuspid valve (10 valve replacements and 4 valvuloplasties) with 1 early death (operative mortality 7.7%). Five patients with bioprosthetic valve replacement had satisfactory results without any early or late deaths; however, 4 patients with mechanical ball or tilting disc valve replacement showed poor results with 1 early death, 1 reoperation, and 2 late deaths. Over the last four years, newly invented valvuloplasty techniques (Danielson's method and Carpentier's method) have been successfully performed on 4 patients, and we propose that the valvuloplasty should be considered in adult form cases whenever the anatomy is favorable