Homograft replacement of the pulmonary valve.

Pulmonary incompetence is a common sequel of pulmonary valvotomy, but many authors believe that the haemodynamic consequences of this regurgitation are well tolerated (Talbert, Morrow, Collins, and Gilbert, 1963). In this paper we report a patient who had severe pulmonary incompetence after valvotomy and who failed to maintain her initial clinical improvement. Because of the severe leak it was considered reasonable to correct the incompetence surgically. A homograft pulmonary valve was used, and we are unaware of any previous report of its use in man, though Ross, Cooper, and Brockenbrough (1961) described the experimental replacement of the pulmonary valve with a tricuspid semilunar prosthesis in dogs.