3 St. Judes valves

Posted by T. David on April 16, 1999 at 11:11:13
My wife recently underwent her 3rd open heart surgery. First, she had rheumatic fever when she was a child. In 1988 she was diagnosed as having severe mitral stenosis. Her cardiologist suggested she try a balloon valvuloplasty to open the mitral valve. During the procedure the catheter ripped through the back of her heart. It took 9 hours to repair the damage, however nothing was actually done about the mitral valve. Then in 1989 she had open heart surgery to replace the mitral valve with a St. Judes valve. Her tricuspid valve was also replaced at that time due to calcification. Now 10 years later in 1999 her aorta valve was totally insufficient and needed replacing, as well as placing a pacemaker. The surgery was performed on 3-22-99. She developed a bleeding ulcer which caused some problems but she seems to be recovering slowly.
My question; How unusual is it for a person to have 3 artificial valves and a pacemaker, or is it not so unheard of?
Thank you,
T. David
  

Posted by CCF CARDIO MD-APS on April 17, 1999 at 12:11:33
Dear David,
For the Rheumatic Heart disease patient, I am not suprised at all by your wife's story.  Rheumatic heart disease usually manifests on the mitral and aortic valves, but in a small percentage of patients it also manifests on the tricuspid valve.
It is also not uncommon for someone with just one mitral surgery to require a pacemaker as this is the area where the conduction system lies and there is no way for the surgeon to completely avoid it while replacing the valve.I hope this information is useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for
general purposes only.  Only your physician can provided specific diagnoses and therapies.
Feel free to write back with further questions. Good luck!
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please
call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at
www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the
cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your
cardiac problem.