Long-term Follow Up Of Prosthetic Heart Valve Replacement

This report reviews our experience with long - term results of 5506 patients with prosthetic heart valve replacement in Fu Wai Heart Disease Hospital, and compares the quality of life of patients with valve replacement before and after the operation. We made use of Internet technique to follow up patients with valve replacement as an initial trial on the net.I. Long - term results of prosthetic heart valve replacementFrom May 1976 to May 1997, 5506 artificial valve prostheses replacement were per-formed (two operations of 221 cases, three operations of 6 cases), the mean age was 39. 86 ± 10. 73 year - old (3 - 76 years old) . There were 6816 prosthetic valves implanted. Among them 830 were bioprosthetic valves, and 5986 were mechanical valves. There were 3231 patients with isolated mitral valve replacement (MVR), 917 patients with isolated aortic valve replacement (AVR), and 48 patients with tricuspid valve replacement (TVR). There were 1296 patients with multiple valve replacement (MVR + AVR). Associated procedures included coronary artery bypass grafting (134 patients) and other operations (201 patients). Follow - up period ranged from 0. 8 year to 22. 58 years, and the mean follow - up period was 6. 59 years. Total follow - up was 28608. 94 patient - years. The follow - up was completed 86. 8% .Total operative mortality was 5. 98% (before 1990 the mortality was 12. 97%; after 1990 it descended to 3. 01%). The common causes of operative death were lower cardiac output syndrome, arrhythmia and cardiac arrest. The rate of structural valve dysfunction (SVD) for biopros-...