Aortic Valve Repair in Neonates, Infants, and Children: A Systematic Review Meta-Analysis and Microsimulation Study

The authors of this study conducted a systematic review of clinical outcomes after pediatric aortic valve repair (AVr) and examined life expectancy and risk of reintervention using microsimulation. The study included forty-one publications including 2,636 patients with 17,217 years of follow-up (median follow up was 7.3. years). Pooled early mortality rates after AVr in children (<18 years), infants (<1 year), and neonates (<30 days) were, respectively, 3.5 percent, 7.4 percent, and 10.7 percent. The pooled late reintervention rates in children, infants and neonates were 3.3 percent per year, 6.8 percent per year, and 6.32 percent per year. Microsimulation-based mean life expectancy in the first twenty years was 18.4 years. Despite a high hazard of reintervention for valve dysfunction and slightly impaired survival compared with the general population, AVr has low valve-related event occurrences and should always be considered.