Prosthetic valve replacement remains the most viable alternative for the treatment of severely diseased heart valves. The cumulative experience of mechanical protheses and bioprostheses was evaluated for a 10-year performance comparison: Carpentier-Edwards standard porcine bioprosthesis (CE-S), 1,214 operations; Carpentier-Edwards supraannular porcine bioprosthesis (CE-SAV), 2,489; and mechanic...

BACKGROUND The initial trial in tricuspid surgery is repair; however, replacement is done whenever the valve is badly diseased. Tricuspid valve replacement comprises 1.7% of all tricuspid valve surgeries. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present retrospective study was performed using the medical records of 21 cases who underwent tricuspid valve replacement from January 2002 until the end of Decembe...

Survival in young adult patients after mechanical aortic valve replacement is reported to be significantly reduced compared with the general ageand gender-matched population, whereas survival after the Ross procedure is excellent and comparable to that in the general population. There is ongoing debate about whether the excellent survival rates observed in Ross patients are a consequence of a h...

Mathematical models can provide valuable information to assess and evaluate the mechanical behavior and remodeling of native tissue. A relevant example when studying collagen remodeling is the Ross procedure because it involves placing the pulmonary autograft in the more demanding aortic valve mechanical environment. The objective of this study was therefore to assess and evaluate the mechanica...

OBJECTIVE Pulmonary valve replacement is performed increasingly late after correction of Tetralogy of Fallot. Most reports deal with pulmonary allografts as the valvar substitute of choice, although late deterioration and reoperation(s) are the rule. Mechanical valves are scarcely reported and if so only because of complications. Although life-long anticoagulation therapy is indicated for mecha...

Recently, several new anticoagulants have been used instead of warfarin for preventing thromboembolism. In the RE-LY (Randomized Evaluation of Long-Term Anticoagulation Therapy) trial, the direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran etexilate was as an effective and safe as dose-adjusted warfarin for prevention of stroke in high-risk patients with atrial fibrillation. However, the safety and efficacy ...

Objective(s): Tissue engineering represents a new approach to solve the current complications of the heart valve replacements by offering viable valve prosthesis with growth and remodeling capability. In this project, electrospinning and dip coating techniques were used to fabricate heart valve constructs from medical grade polyurethane (PU). Methods: Fir...

In this update, current guidelines addressing prosthesis selection published by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) are discussed, along with additional data that affect choices in valve prostheses. The case of a 50-year-old man undergoing aortic valve replacement is used to address anticipated operative mortality,...

Due to the increasing number of heart valve diseases, there is an urgent clinical need for off-the-shelf tissue engineered heart valves. While significant progress has been made toward improving the design and performance of both mechanical and tissue engineered heart valves (TEHVs), a human implantable, functional, and viable TEHV has remained elusive. In animal studies so far, the implanted T...

patient-year), major bleeding events (1.0%/patient-year), and aortic valve reoperation (0.26%/patient-year). They also reported that valve-related death was the most common cause of death (26.8%) and that the rates of freedom from valve-related death were 96.2%, 92.7%, 88.8%, and 86.6% at 5, 10, 15, and 20 years, respectively. These results compare favorably with the findings of previous report...