4 ms·

Would artificial valves then not work as well or even better?

• iancmceachern 5y ago
  Nope, the ball and disc valves were where they started and they had any issues including wear, blood clots and strokes. You could also hear many of them outside the patients body.
• kashunstva 5y ago
  The tissue component of bioprosthetic valves is treated ex vivo in such a way as to greatly reduce the immune reactivity. It's practically not a consideration. Mechanical prosthetic heart values are generally favoured only in older patients where re-operation is not likely to be required. The reason being that bioprosthetic valves have a more limited long-term durability. So why not always use mechanical valves? Their clotting risk is considerably higher and so they require higher intensity anticoagulant therapy - along with all of the attendant complications of that...
  • tired_medicine 5y ago
    Mech valves are actually favored in younger patients, since they don't become calcified, like bioprosthetic valves. However, they do require life long anticoagulation with warfarin, which is dangerous to live with.
    • Ensorceled 5y ago
      Calcification was what happened with my grandmother; due to other ailments and QoL (she was 85) she declined getting a new valve.
• perlgeek 5y ago
  Artificial valves last roughly 10 years, typically. Sometimes more. You have to take antibiotics at the slightest sign of any infection, to avoid infectious settlement of the valve. A family member got a "tissue engineered" valve a few years ago, so the cells (from a human valve, salvaged from the recipient of a heart transplant) were removed, and can be colonized by body cells, very mild to non-existent rejection. This seems to be a permanent solution.