BACKGROUND Published data suggest that rates of thromboembolism and bleeding, in patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses, can be very small by optimizing current anticoagulant therapy. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the occurrence of complications in patients with mechanical heart valve prostheses undergoing anticoagulant therapy optimized through specialized clinics. METHODS We studied the ...

Front Cover: Currently available heart valve prostheses have no growth potential, requiring children with diseases to endure multiple replacement surgeries. In article number 2300011, David Kalfa, Jeffrey W. Kysar, Richard L. Li and co-workers develop the proof of concept a polymeric valved conduit that can be expanded by transcatheter balloon dilation accommodate patient growth.

BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY Glutaraldehyde-preserved bioprosthetic heart valves are non-viable and have a limited durability because of calcification, tissue wear, and inflammation, especially in children. Decellularized porcine heart valves, when treated with deoxycholic acid (DOA), have exhibited complete recellularization and an absence of calcification when implanted into the pulmonary ...

Background: Heart valve replacement surgery with mechanical or biological prostheses entails a risk of thromboembolism and bleeding complications. Objective: To determine the complications related to complementary anticoagulation therapy probability risk. Methods: One-hundred sixty-three patients who underwent heart between 2002 2016 either prostheses, received vitamin K antagonists after hospi...

Doppler echocardiography was used to study the function of bioprosthetic heart valves by noninvasive means in 32 patients aged 29 to 72 years at various postoperative intervals. There were 24 Ionescu-Shiley, four Hancock, and four Carpentier-Edwards prostheses, 19 in the aortic and 13 in the mitral position. Initial studies were performed at a mean of 2.3 years after implantation and were repea...

From 1975 to 1979, 540 patients undergoing valve replacement were entered into a randomized trial and received either a Bjdrk-Shiley (273 patients) or a porcine heterograft prosthesis (initially a Hancock valve [107 patients] and later a Carpentier-Edwards prosthesis [ 160 patients]). Two hundred and sixty-two patients required mitral valve replacement, 210 required aortic valve replacement, 60...

Objective: To compare survival and outcome in patients receiving a mechanical or bioprosthetic heart valve prosthesis. Design: Randomised prospective trial. Setting: Tertiary cardiac centre. Patients: Between 1975 and 1979, patients were randomised to receive either a Bjork-Shiley or a porcine prostheses. The mitral valve was replaced in 261 patients, the aortic in 211, and both valves in 61 pa...

BACKGROUND Hydrodynamic performance of a decellularized pulmonary porcine valve was evaluated with a computer versatile pulse duplicator and compared to glutaraldehyde fixated stentless porcine bioprosthesis and a polyurethane heart valve. METHODS Decellularized pulmonary porcine matrices (Group I, n = 5) were treated chemically to become cell-free collagen matrices. The findings of this hear...

OBJECTIVE To measure the noise produced and related subjective complaints after implantation of four different mechanical heart valve prostheses and to identify further factors related to the patient and prosthesis that influence noise generation and complaints. DESIGN Sound pressure was measured 5 and 10 cm and 1 m from the point of maximal impulse on the body surface by a calibrated meter i...