INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The clinical impact of patient-prosthesis mismatch on the outcome in octogenarians who undergo surgery for aortic valve replacement due to severe stenosis is unknown. Our objective was to quantify the frequency of some degree of patient-prosthesis mismatch and its impact on mortality and life quality. METHODS We analyzed all the octogenarian patients who underwent ...

In the surgery of aortic valve replacement is always attempted, as much as possible, to implant the larger prosthesis with the mains goals to enhance the potential benefits, to minimise transvalvular gradient, decrease left ventricular size and avoid the phenomenon of patient-prosthesis mismatch. Implantation of an ideal prosthesis often it is not possible, due to a small aortic annulus. A vari...

A 76-year old female, was admitted in our cardiac surgery clinic to perform surgical aortic valve replacement due to a severe aortic regurgitation with symptoms of congestive heart failure. Her past medical history included moderately impaired renal function (GFR 48 mL/min) and arterial hypertension.  The thoracic-CT scan revealed a serious calcification of the entire thoracic aorta (Figure 1)...

OBJECTIVE Characterisation of anticoagulant control is fundamental to investigations of its association with clinical outcome. Anticoagulant control depends on several factors. This paper aims to illustrate the implications of different methods for measuring and analysing anticoagulant control in patients with second generation mechanical heart valve prostheses. METHODS International normalis...

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-calci...

Long-term clinical and laboratory findings in three children who required mitral valve replacement below age four years are reported. In each instance a second valve replacement was necessary approximately 8 1/2 years after the initial one, following a two and one-half fold increase in body weight. Inadequate mitral valve orifice size was found in each instance, producing a hemodynamic picture ...

Various materials that are used for vascular and heart valve prostheses carry drawbacks: some require anticoagulant drugs or have moderate durability; others are not suitable for endovascular treatment. These prostheses are associated with bacterial infections. A material potentially suitable for prostheses is Dyneema Purity®, made of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene. Dyneema Purity® fi...

The patient was a 29-year-old woman who, when she was an 8-year-old, had undergone atrial septal defect (ASD) closure and mitral valve replacement (MVR) using a Björk-Shiley valve (25 mm) for Lutembacher syndrome. Because of a planned pregnancy, warfarin had been replaced by heparin. During the 7th week of pregnancy, she was admitted to our hospital because of dyspnea. She was diagnosed with ac...