Syndrome of Ventricular Septal Defect and Aortic Regurgitation - A 22-Year Review of its Management

The presence of aortic regurgitation (AR) in the setting of ventricular septal defect (VSD) has always been a management challenge.

This is a retrospective study looking at patients who underwent VSD closure with or without aortic valve intervention between January 1st, 1992 and December 31st, 2014 at the Institute Jantung Negara. This study looked at all cases of VSD and AR, where AR was classified as mild, moderate, and severe, the intervention done in each of this grade, and the durability of that intervention. The interventions were classified as no intervention (NI), aortic valve repair (AVr), and aortic valve replacement (AVR).

A total of 261 patients were recruited into this study. Based on the various grades of AR, 105 patients had intervention to their aortic valve during VSD closure. The rest 156 had NI. All patients were followed up for a mean time of 13.9±3.5 years. Overall freedom from reoperation at 15 years was 82.6% for AVr. Various factors were investigated to decide on intervening on the aortic valve during VSD closure. Among those that were statistically significant were the grade of AR, size of VSD, age at intervention, and number of cusp prolapse.

We can conclude from our study that all moderate and severe AR with small VSD in older patients with more than one cusp prolapse will need intervention to their aortic valve during the closure of VSD.