Seven-Year Experience and Follow-Up with St. Jude Medical® Prostheses

Abstract

At the Division of Cardiac Surgery of St. Camillo Hospital, 1411 patients were operated on for valve replacement with ST. JUDE MEDICAL® prostheses from November 1978 through June 30, 1986. Six hundred eighty patients had mitral valve replacement (MVR), 468 had aortic valve replacement (A VR), 5 had tricuspid valve replacement (TVR), 246 had MVR + AVR, 8 had MVR + TVR, 1 had AVR + TVR, 3 had MVR + AVR + TVR, and 1 had MVR + AVR as well as ascending aorta replacement with a ST. JUDE MEDICAL aortic valved graft. The total number of implanted prostheses was 1672. Associated procedures were: left atrium thrombectomy 98, tricuspid valve repair 92, coronary artery bypass grafting 52, subaortic membrane repair 19, and atrial septal defect closure 16. The operative mortality rate was 9.3% for MVR, 5.8% for AVR, 40% for TVR, 6.8% for MVR + AVR, 14% for MVR + TVR, 66.6% for MVR + AVR + TVR, and 0% for AVR + TVR. The 7-year actuarial survival rate was 78% for MVR, 86% for AVR, and 80% for MVR + AVR. At 7 years, the actuarial rate of freedom from thromboembolism was 82% for the complete series, and the actuarial rate of freedom from major events (prosthesis failure and prosthesis thrombosis) was 92%. Seven-year actuarial survival in patients with concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting was similar to that for patients without coronary artery disease. Clinical improvement was observed in 97% of patients.