Long-term outcomes of the Carpentier-Edwards pericardial valve prosthesis in the aortic position: effect of patient age.

Pericardial bioprosthetic heart valves were introduced into clinical practice more than 30 years ago (1). Unfortunately, the long-term results were initially disappointing, particularly with regard to the limited durability of the prosthesis (2,3). Clinical use of the Carpentier-Edwards pericardial (CEp) valve started in 1981, and a variety of new techniques of valve construction and anti-calcification treatments were applied in order to reduce the incidence of prosthesis failure (4). Subsequently, very satisfying long-term results have been achieved during the past years with the CEp valve (5-7). The study aim was to report the long-term outcome, of up to 18 years, with the CEp aortic valve at two Italian hospitals.