Late thrombotic obstruction of Starr-Edwards tricuspid valve prosthesis.

significant number of patients undergoing surA gery for valvular hea, disease suffer from rheumatic involvement or functional insufficiency of the tricuspid valve necessitating its replacement with a prosthe~is.~.' Follow-up studies indicate few significant postoperative complications related to the prosthetic tricuspid ~ a l v e . ~ . ~ Life-threatening obstruction of the prosthesis by thrombus formation, although reported occasionally for mitral pros these^,^.^ is uncommon for the tricuspid prost h e s i ~ . ~ , ~ The present report will describe the clinical findings in two patients who developed late thrombotic obstruction of Starr-Edwards prosthetic tricuspid valves.