Replacement of the mitral valve with an aortic valve homograft has become feasible. Clinical and hemodynamic assessments of eight patients who received the new homograft were made from 3 to 6 months following surgery. Marked improvement was reported by six patients and mild to moderate improvement by two. At rest the homografts functioned well, creating a trivial diastolic gradient between the ...

During most of the last century, the concept of atherosclerosis as a cholesterol storage disease prevailed.1 By the mid-1980s, it had become clear that in addition to lipid-engorged macrophage foam cells, cells of the adaptive immune response, particularly T lymphocytes, localized in atheromatous lesions.2 These observations raised the possibility that immune and inflammatory processes might pa...

Objective: This study reports the outcomes of the cryopreserved mitral homograft in 119 patients prospectively followed with clinical, echocardiographic and structural valve deterioration assessments. Methods: 119 patients undergoing mitral and aortic homograft implantation. Patient’s causes of mitral disease were: rheumatic disease (n = 75), endocarditis (n = 37) and others (n = 7). There were...

A consecutive series of 93 patients had homograft.aortic valve replacement at Green Lane Hospital over a six-month period. Except for 12 assessed at one or two months, the 85 survivors were examined at three months and the clinical degree of aortic incompetence was recorded. Thirty-four of the patients did not proceed to aortography for reasons unrelated to the state of the homograft valve. Fif...

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of pseudoaneurysm formation after aortic (left ventricular outflow tract) homograft implantation and to evaluate predisposing factors. METHODS Echocardiographic data were analysed in 30 patients for evidence of pseudoaneurysm formation after homograft implantation. Pseudoaneurysm was characterised as a perfused echo-free space between the homograft and th...

BACKGROUND The Ross procedure and aortic homografts have both been shown to have superior hemodynamic performance after valve replacement, but there have been few comparisons. METHODS Sequential Doppler echocardiograms were performed up to 5 years after aortic valve replacement in 132 patients with the Ross procedure and 111 patients with an aortic homograft (AH). Measurements included assess...

The long-term behavior of an antibiotic-treated homograft aortic valve inserted in a freehand fashion was assessed in 121 patients operated upon for aortic valve disease and followed from four to six and one-half years. There were seven hospital deaths (5.7%) and 30 late deaths, only one of which was related to the homograft valve. The six year survival was 69% (77% for single valve and 52% for...