Chronic haemolysis following insertion of ball valve prostheses.

Intravascular haemolysis after the insertion of intracardiac prosthetic material has been reported by Sayed et al. (1961), Verdon, Forrester, and Crosby (1963), Sigler et al. (1963), Gehrmann and Loogen (1964), Reed and Dunn (1964), Marsh (1964), and Yacoub, Rogers, and Taylor (1965). The haemolysis may be sufficient to produce clinical haemolytic anaemia or may cause a compensated haemolytic state (Yacoub et al., 1965). The possible harmful effects of mild continuous chronic haemolysis on the kidney and liver have been pointed out by Song (1957) and by Andersen, Gabrieli, and Zizzi (1965). The purpose of this paper is to study red cell survival after the insertion of Starr-Edwards prostheses in the aortic and mitral areas.