Background. Thrombolytic therapy is a promising alternative to valve replacement in the management of prosthetic valve thrombosis. We sought to determine the shortand long-term results of treating thrombosed St. Jude heart valves with thrombolytic therapy as the primary treatment modality. Methods and Results. Between March 1978 and December 1991, 988 patients underwent implantation of St. Jude...

Luca Santini received lecture fees from St. Jude Medical and Boston Scientific and worked as a consultant for Biotronik, St. Jude Medical, and Boston Scientific. Giovanni B. Forleo received lecture fees from St. Jude Medical and Boston Scientific and worked as a consultant for Biotronik, St. Jude Medical, and Boston Scientific. Address reprint requests and correspondence: Dr Luca Santini, Cardi...

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...

OBJECTIVES The clinical effect of combined warfarin and antiplatelet therapy on the incidence of stroke and postoperative complications after mitral (plus aortic) valve replacement was studied and compared with that observed with warfarin therapy alone. BACKGROUND It has been reported that combined warfarin and antiplatelet therapy may be effective but may be associated with an increased hemo...

A 39-year-old woman had undergone mitral valve replacement (MVR) (29-mm Björk-Shiley Delrin disk) at 6 years of age. Severe mitral regurgitation, aortic regurgitation, and left ventricular dilatation were detected by echocardiography in October 2006, and MVR (ON-X 25 mm) and aortic valve replacements (St. Jude Medical Regent, 21 mm) were performed in December. The Delrin disk of the previous pr...

An 80-year-old woman with a history of surgical aortic valve replacement 21 mm St. Jude Medical Biocor porcine 14 years prior presented New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III symptoms, severe insufficiency from degenerated prosthesis, and large echocardiographic mobile mass representing highly prosthetic leaflet. The patient worsened to NYHA IV symptoms despite medical management. Society ...

A patient with pseudoxanthoma elasticum presented in pulmonary oedema with restrictive left ventricular cardiomyopathy caused by calcified endocardial bands that were confirmed on echocardiography and at catheterisation. The bands were resected as far as possible and the involved mitral valve was replaced by a heterograft. A year later calcification of the heterograft forced its replacement by ...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to compare the early haemodynamic data of the On-X and St Jude Medical (SJM) Regent bileaflet mechanical prostheses in the aortic position. METHODS A retrospective study was performed using data collected prospectively for a national database. Thirty-three patients who had aortic On-X valve (On-X group) and 33 matched patients who had aortic SJM Regent valve (SJM group) wer...

Bioprosthetic valves are used for patients who’s conditions are unfavorable for anticoagulant therapy. A 72-year-old woman underwent operation for severe mitral stenosis and mild regurgitation in our cardiovascular surgery clinic four years ago 27 mm (this is highly unusual) St Jude to have a bioprosthesis mitral valve implanted. Surgeons chose bioprosthesis instead of a mechanical valve due to...