Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 August 2008
Double orifice left atrioventricular valve is an uncommon condition. This paper describes 10 consecutive patients with the anomaly encountered over 20 months. Diagnosis was assisted by cross-sectional echocardiography and supplementary color Doppler, often requiring non-standard views and a high index of suspicion. There were three anatomical variants—those in which the orifices were equal in size (three of 10 patients), those in which they were unequal and associated with an atrioventricular septal defect (four of 10 patients), and those in which they were unequal in the absence of an atrioventricular septal defect (three of 10 patients). The unequal orifice in both anatomical situations was frequently complicated by valvar regurgitation (six of seven patients). Conservative repair was possible in three of the four patients requiring surgery to the left atrioventricular valve. This condition should be thought of more often in the differential diagnosis of left atrioventricular regurgitation in childhood.