On-X versus St Jude Medical Regent mechanical aortic valve prostheses: early haemodynamics

OBJECTIVE We aimed to compare the early haemodynamic data of the On-X and St Jude Medical (SJM) Regent bileaflet mechanical prostheses in the aortic position. METHODS A retrospective study was performed using data collected prospectively for a national database. Thirty-three patients who had aortic On-X valve (On-X group) and 33 matched patients who had aortic SJM Regent valve (SJM group) were included. The intraoperative and early postoperative data were collected. The same echocardiographer reviewed all the echocardiograms and obtained the required parameters. RESULTS The peak gradient across the prosthetic valve was comparable between the two groups except for the labelled valve size of 25 mm for which the On-X group had lower peak gradient when compared with the SJM group. Mean gradients and effective orifice area indices of the two valve types within each valve size subgroup were comparable. CONCLUSIONS The current study confirms that in the early postoperative period, the two valve types had comparable haemodynamic outcomes.