Follow-Up Study on Aortic Valve Replacements

The results of a 13-year follow-up review of aortic valve replacement showed a survival rate at 11 years after the implant of 96% for a Ross autograft, 96% for the aortic allograft, and 89% for the mechanical valve replacements.

The follow-up reviewed the survival and morbidity rates of 705 aortic valve replacement patients, ages 17-50. The replacements included 347 mechanical prostheses, 193 aortic allografts, and 165 pulmonary autografts performed using the Ross procedure. This procedure uses the patient's own pulmonary valve and the surrounding pulmonary artery as a unit to replace the aortic valve and surrounding aortic artery. A cryopreserved donor pulmonary valve tissue is then placed in the pulmonary position as replacement for the patient's vacated pulmonary valve. The Ross Procedure was introduced as an alternative for patients wishing to avoid the anticoagulation drug therapy associated with mechanical heart valve implants.

The conclusions of the review indicated that although allograft and autograft valve patients required a somewhat higher replacement frequency, this did not affect the long-term survival as compared to the mechanical valve patients. The review was conducted by researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (Norman, USA) and the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane (Australia). The researchers presented their study at the annual meeting of the Western Thoracic Surgical Association in San Diego (CA, USA). The first tissue-engineered heart valve replacement, called SynerGraft, was developed by CryoLife, Inc. (Kennesaw, GA, USA), a leading supplier of cryopreserved and tissue-engineered implantable heart valves and vascular and orthopedic grafts.

"We are currently strengthening the Ross Procedure by providing cryopreserved allograft pulmonary replacement valves processed with our SynerGraft technology,” said Steven G. Anderson, president and CEO of CryoLife. "The technology centers around the removal of antigens from animal and human tissue leaving a collagen matrix that has the potential to be repopulated with the recipient's own cells.”




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