BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term performance of the St. Jude Medical Biocor stented porcine prosthesis in the aortic position. METHODS From January 1985 to December 1996, 455 patients admitted for aortic valve replacement were consecutively enrolled in this study. The mean age was 72.5 +/- 9 years, 18 patients (3.5%) had had previous cardiac surgery, and coro...

OBJECTIVES The St. Jude Medical Trifecta aortic bioprosthesis (St. Jude Medical, Inc., St. Paul, MN, USA) is a new stented pericardial tissue heart valve. The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical and haemodynamic performance of the Trifecta bioprosthesis in the early postoperative period. METHODS From July 2010 to September 2012, a total of 200 consecutive patients underwent aortic v...

BACKGROUND Aortic valve replacement in the young adult (aged 18 to 50 years) is a choice between a mechanical prosthesis with attendant lifelong anticoagulation or biological prostheses of varying types that may have limited life expectancy in this age group. METHODS The Cardiac Surgical Research Foundation database was accessed to determine long-term outcomes in patients having aortic valve ...

A 67-year-old man diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis was admitted to our institution with pulmonary edema. The patient had a history of severe pulmonary fibrosis (total lung capacity, 57% of predicted value; diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide, 33% of predicted value) and had undergone coronary bypass grafting and mitral valve replacement with a St Jude mechanical valve (St Jude Medical, ...

A St. Jude Medical Silzone was implanted in a 72-year-old female, suffering from mitral valve disease. Four months later, the patient had acute cardiac failure due to partial detachment of the prosthetic valve. The mitral annulus was ulcerated and there were multiple erosions in the myocardial tissue in contact with the prosthetic valve. Histological examination revealed chronic inflammation wi...

BACKGROUND In this retrospective study, approximately 440 patients received mitral valve replacements with the St Jude Medical prosthesis. The last patient was operated on 10 years before the beginning of the follow-up. The extended follow-up was 19 years. METHODS AND RESULTS Four hundred forty patients (sex ratio, 1.32 [men to women]; age, 60+/-11.4 years; age range, 7 to 75 years) were oper...

Transcatheter transfemoral mitral valve repair using the MitraClip system (Abbott Vascular, USA) is used in high-risk or inoperable patients with severe mitral regurgitation. We report the first-in-human simultaneous transfemoral clipping of the mitral and tricuspid valve completed by occlusion of an atrial septal defect (ASD). The procedure was performed in an 84-year-old patient in October 20...