OUTCOME OF PROSTHETIC HEART VALVE SURGERY IN IRAN

Authors

Abstract

Objective- Evaluation of the natural history of prosthetic heart valves is very important because of their serious complications. This study was performed to assess the natural history, efficiency and durability of prosthetic heart valves implanted from 1976 to 1993 at our center in Tehran. We also compared these results with other reports.
Methods- Data of this cross-sectional descriptive study were collected by questionnaire from 4672 files in our hospitals medical records department.
Results- 4672 patients, 51 % male and 49% female, aged 32.7±4 years, were evaluated in this study. The average age of females at operation was higher than that of males (33.6 vs. 31.6 yrs.). The most frequent underlying etiology for valvular heart diseases was rheumatic fever (80.37%) and congenital diseases (8.24%).
The mechanical prosthetic valves have been used more frequently than bioprosthetic valves (92.7% versus 7.3%). The Bjork-Shiley and St. Jude mechanical valves were the most widely used prostheses, respectively. The most common complication with the prosthetic valves was paravalvular leak, which was seen more commonly with the tilting disc type valves. The most common cause of prosthesis-related death was paravalvular leak in our center.
Conclusion- The new generation bi-leaflet prosthetic valves are low-profile prostheses which exhibit the least obstruction to forward flow and the best hemodynamic function in our department, compared to the other prosthetic valves (Iranian Heart Journal 2003; 4 (2,3): (15-19)

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