To investigate the influence of changes in activation on left ventricular ejection, the effects of right ventricular, left ventricular, and simultaneous pacing of both ventricles were studied in 6 patients immediately after replacement of the aortic valve with a Starr-Edwards prosthesis. Variation in pacing site caused little or no change in systemic arterial pressure or cardiac output. However...

Details are presented concerning 59 patients who left hospital between January 1964 and January 1969 after aortic valve replacement with the Starr-Edwards prosthesis. Of the 14 late deaths, 7 are known to have been due to causes related to the prosthesis and 4 to other causes. The 45 surviving patients have nearly all shown clinical improvement and only 3 are unable to work as a result of some ...

a rigid metal ring having three spurs to support the commissures. The ring frame is completely covered by the heterograft, and no artificial material is in contact with the blood stream. Completely fabricated and tested for competency beforehand, it requires only one row of interrupted sutures-after the manner of the Starr-Edwards prosthesis-for insertion, and can be used in either the mitral o...