MARFANS SYNDROME AND MITRAL VALVE DISEASE - ACUTE SURGICAL EMERGENCIES

This report calls attention to the occurrence of acute cardiovascular surgical emergencies involving the mitral valve in Marfan's syndrome by presenting the case history of a 4-year-old girl. This patient with classical features of Marfan's syndrome and known mitral insufficiency, documented by cardiac catheterization and angiocardiography, had an acute episode of profound congestive heart failure which appeared to be secondary to a sudden increase in the volume of mitral regurgitation. At surgical exploration, a flail posterior leaflet of the mitral valve with ruptured chordae tendineae was discovered. The patient died 17 hours after mitral valve prosthetic replacement. © 1969.