Total 400 St. Jude Medical Bileaflet valves mere implanted in 336 pts from January 1983 to June 1993; 64 were aortic, 205 were mitral, 64 were double valve and 3 were tricuspid position. The follow up period extended from 6 months to 10
years(mean
24.3
months). Male to female ration was 1:1.7.
There were total 27 deaths(cardiac related 20, cardiac non-related 7). Overall mortality was 2.9%/pt-ur. There were 10 early deaths(3.0%) and 10 late cardiac related deaths(3.0%). Prosthetic valve related complications occured in 19
patients(5.7%)
and
among them, seven died; four died of thromboembolic events, two died of anticoagulants therapy related hemorrhagic complications and one died of bacterial endocarditis. NYHA class improved significantly especially in aortic valve replacement and
double
valve replacement. In AVR cases, the mean NYHA was 2.8 preoperatively and 1.3 postoperatively. And in DVR cases, 3.3 preoperatively and 2.2 postoperatively.
The decision to employ a particular prosthesis was made according to anticipated or known complications of the valve. The St. Jude Medical Valve retains all the hazards of other mechanical valves, most notably, thromboembolism. But the
hemodynamic
performance of St. Jude Medical Valve compared most favorably with other substitute valves in many reports. Our experience didn't show any differences compared other authors in terms of valve related complication.
So we concluded St. Jude Medical Valve can be primarilly considered in the selection of artificial valve except in the patients when the usage of anticiagulant therapy is contraindicated. (Korean J Thoracic Cardiovas Surg 1994; 27:272-80)
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