BACKGROUND From October 1977 to October 2002, 4,480 patients (age range, 17 to 94 years; average, 64 +/- 13 years) underwent single valve replacement with the St. Jude Medical heart valve. Of 2,982 aortic (AVR) and 1,498 mitral valve replacements (MVR), concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting was performed on 42% and 33%, respectively. METHODS Cardiac Surgical Associates has maintained an...

The results of experimental researches hydrodynamic noise generated by a jet flow through the mechanical bileaflet mitral valve prosthesis Italian company Sorin are given. Physical simulation was carried out in laboratory conditions on model left atrial chamber and ventricular heart. artificial increased with increasing water flow. It found that greatest intensity its spectral components observ...

BACKGROUND Combined aortic valve repair and aortic valve-sparing surgery requires an approach determined by the leaflets and aortic root anatomy. METHODS Among patients referred for aortic root aneurysm, 114 patients underwent an aortic valve-sparing procedure in which a reimplantation or remodelling technique was used. The Gelweave Valsalva prosthesis (Sulzer Vascutek, Renfrewshire, UK) was ...

BACKGROUND The CarboMedics valve is a relatively new, low-profile, bileaflet, mechanical prosthesis. The results of a prospective follow-up study after valve replacement with this prosthesis in a university hospital are presented. METHODS We implanted 640 CarboMedics prostheses in 583 patients in the aortic (n = 359), mitral (n = 167), or aortic and mitral positions (double valve replacement;...

SINCE the introduction of artificial heart valves, investigators have been continuously modifying them, endeavoring to eliminate complications associated with their use. -3 The Starr-Edwards ball-valve prosthesis was the first to be widely accepted; however, problems due to its weight, cage size, and resistance to blood flow have stimulated the search for a better prosthetic device. In spite of...

BACKGROUND Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) has proven to be a valid option for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are at high perioperative risk, particularly in patients with previous cardiac surgery. Several patients with previous mitral valve surgery were reported to have been successfully treated with TAVI. CASE PRESENTATION Two patients, one with mechanical and one w...

In this update, current guidelines addressing prosthesis selection published by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) are discussed, along with additional data that affect choices in valve prostheses. The case of a 50-year-old man undergoing aortic valve replacement is used to address anticipated operative mortality,...

Objective: Doppler echocardiographic evaluation of prosthetic heart valve function is usually performed at rest although this situation is not representative of patients’ daily activities. Following aortic valve replacement, patients most likely to remain symptomatic are those with a small aortic root and dobutamine or exercise echocardiography has been proposed to elicit the presence of abnorm...