At present, the closed t ransventricular mit ral co mmiss uro tomy wit h th e Tubbs d ilat or is a controversial proce du re. Its critics charge unsatisfact ory result s and early reo peratlons. Th e risk assoc iated with op en mitral co mmissuro t omy. however. may we ll b e high er t ha n th at associated wit h th e clos ed pr oce du re ; mitr al valve replacement is also ofte n necessary. even in pure mit ral stenosis. One hun dre d sixty-eight pat ient s who underwen t a Tu bbs op eration bet ween 1970 and 1979 were surveyed at least one year. and an average of 4 .5 years, aft er surgery. Eight pat ients (4 .8%) were lost to follow-up beca use t hey co uld not be located. Early mortality was 3 .0 %; late mo rtalit y, 5.4 % (9 pat ien ts died after the fo llow-up st udy was co nclude d). The total reop eratlon rat e was 4 .1 %, l.e., 1.0 % per pat ient year. The survival rate was det ermined wit h the actuarial meth od of Berkson and Gage as mod ified by Anderson and co-wo rkers. The 7-year survival rate was 9 1 % and th e t n-veer surival rate 84 %. This rate diffe rs apout as much fro m a norm al popul atio n as th e early mortality rate, bu t it is co nsiderab ly higher than t hat for a group of conservati vely t reat ed patien ts. Th irty percent , or more , of t he patients , had improv ed at least one class acco rding to the New York Heart Associati on Classificat ion afte r 10 yea rs; 15 % slipped below t heir preoperative class. Forty-two percent of the pat ients repor ted th eir conditio n as st ill improved afte r 10 years; 26 % considere d their co ndition to have deteriorated.