BACKGROUND Between June 1968 and March 1977, Starr-Edwards cloth-covered ball valves were used for valve replacement on a routine basis. METHODS AND RESULTS Among the 66 operative survivors who underwent an isolated aortic or mitral valve replacement, 20 patients required reoperation 22 times because of valve dysfunction, thromboembolic complication, paravalvular leakage, hemolytic anemia, an...

The first mechanical heart valve prosthesis, designed by Dr Charles Hufnagel, was implanted to the descending aorta of a 30-year-old woman with severe aortic regurgitation in 1952.1 Eight years after the initial successful prosthetic valve implantation, Dr Harken sutured a prosthetic valve (Starr Edwards Valve) to the aortic annulus after removing the diseased native valve. During the ensuing y...

The thrombo-embolic complications of the cloth-covered Starr-Edwards prostheses No. 2300 aortic and No. 6300 mitral followed for an average of 14 months in 155 patients are reviewed. There was a high incidence of early fatal and disabling thrombo-embolus in patients 'having mitral valve replacement. Late emboli were more common after aortic valve replacement. Anticoagulant control was unsatisfa...

The first mechanical heart valve prosthesis, designed by Dr Charles Hufnagel, was implanted to the descending aorta of a 30-year-old woman with severe aortic regurgitation in 1952.1 Eight years after the initial successful prosthetic valve implantation, Dr Harken sutured a prosthetic valve (Starr Edwards Valve) to the aortic annulus after removing the diseased native valve. During the ensuing y...

A 53-year-old woman who had undergone aortic valve replacement with a Starr-Edwards (S-E) valve (Model 1260) and open mitral commissurotomy 28 years previously was hospitalized with cardiac failure. Echocardiography showed mitral stenosis, mitral regurgitation, and a normally functioning S-E prosthesis. At reoperation, the mitral and aortic valves were replaced with St Jude bileaflet mechanical...

A patient developed severe hemolytic anemia one year after insertion of a cloth-covered aortic valve prosthesis (Starr-Edwards No. 2320). The cloth over the three struts was disrupted but showed coverage with mostly organized collagen. Hemolysis stopped after replacement with a porcine heterograft. Fabric wear seems to augment the hemolysis in patients with cloth-covered artificial valves.

Giant cell aoritis occurred in a 25-year-old woman, with absent pulses in the left arm and severe aortic regurgitation from dilatation of the valvar annulus. The aortic valve was replaced by a Starr-Edwards prosthesis, and the patient was treated with steroids. Five years later, she continues asymptomatic and haemodynamically stable. The left brachial and radial pulses have returned.