Mechanical Heart Valves

Anticoagulation for Mechanical Heart Valves

Although mechanical heart valves (MHV) are more durable than tissue valves, they are more thrombogenic. Consequently, patients with MHV require long-term anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists, such as warfarin. Although effective, warfarin has well-known limitations, including multiple drug and food interactions, and the challenges of coagulation monitoring and maintaining the internationa...

Elliptic st. jude bileaflet mechanical heart valves

St. Jude Medical (SJM) bileaflet mechanical valves were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1977. The SJM valve design consists of two semicircular leaflets which pivot on hinges. Compared to other mechanical heart valve prostheses such as ball and cage and tilting disk prosthetic valves, it provides good central flow, the leaflets open completely, and the pressure drop across the v...

Heartbeat: Warfarin therapy for mechanical heart valves.

Although many patients requiring long term anti-thrombotic therapy now can be treated with direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), vitamin K antagonists, such as warfarin, remain the only treatment option in patients with mechanical heart valves (MHVs). In the future, we can expect that fewer patients will receive (MHVs), given that surgical repair often is possible in patients with mitral valve di...

Mechanical heart valves: 50 years of evolution.

The past 50 years have witnessed remarkable progress in the development of safe, hemodynamically favorable mechanical heart valves. Starr-Edwards aortic and mitral ball valves introduced in the mid-1960s, continue to be used successfully worldwide. More than 100,000 Omniscience and Omnicarbon tilting-disc valves have been implanted since 1978 with essentially no mechanical failure; similar resu...

Anti-Coagulation During Pregnancy in Women with Mechanical Heart Valves: A Prospective Study