Purpose: Surgical treatment of floppy mitral valve in Marfan syndrome is challenging because
the connective tissue disease might influence durability of repair. Enormous annular
size and extensive pathological tissue involvement makes repair highly demanding.
This study evaluates the long-term outcome of repair for floppy mitral valves in children
with Marfan syndrome.
Methods: Between 1997 and 2014, eleven children with Marfan’s syndrome (mean age, 10.2, range:
0.58–16.8) years presented with severe mitral valve regurgitation with left ventricular
dilatation. Four patients had associated ascending aortic aneurysm with annular dilatation
and aortic valve regurgitation while another had ascending root aneurysm, severe tricuspid
regurgitation and pectus excavatum. Simultaneous correction of all presenting pathologies
was performed including correction of the chest wall deformity. Intraoperative mitral
valve findings revealed enormously dilated annulus (n = 4), enlarged anterior and posterior leaflets (n = 3) with prolapse of the posterior leaflets caused by chordal elongation in three
patients and chordal rupture in another three. Mitral valve repair using modified
surgical repair techniques including partial obliteration of the mitral valve orifice,
leaflet plication and annulus stabilization with autologous pericardium according
to the presenting valve morphology was performed.
Results: There was neither morbidity nor mortality, nor any valve-related complications. The
postoperative course was uneventful after each operation. During a median duration
of follow-up of 9.9 (range: 4.3–23.2) years, there was either absent or minimal regurgitation
except in one patient, who underwent a repeat mitral valve repair with concomitant
ascending aortic root replacement 13 years after the initial repair. All patients
were in NYHA class I or II, with improved functional capacity.
Conclusion: Midterm and long-term outcome of repair of floppy mitral valve in children with Marfan
syndrome, accomplished by repair techniques without the use of any prosthetic materials,
is durable and satisfactory. This suggests that the connective tissue disease at least
during the period of follow-up does not compromise the results of mitral valve repair.