Re: Aortic Valve Replacement

Posted By Nathan Jones on February 12, 1999 at 16:50:24:

In Reply to: Aortic Valve Replacement posted by Will on February 12, 1999 at 12:38:13:







: > ...a tissue valve is a sentence to mark time to the next surgery.
> Anywhere from 6 months to 8 years.
My father is probably getting his aortic valve replaced in the next
couple weeks, which will be a tissue valve because of his age. So I am
curious about this. I've heard that tissue valves have a limited
lifespan (the range I'd heard was 10-15 years). But I never found out, at
the end of that time do you replace it, or does the patient die? If it
does get replaced (as your comment seems to suggest), how many times
can it be replaced?
There's a lot of progress happening out there, and 8 or 10 years is
relatively a long time. Let's hope that better solutions emerge over
the next decade or so. Some of the stem cell research that was making
headlines a month or two ago might make it possible to generate heart
valves with a patient's own genome, maybe this would overcome the
problem with the tissue valves.
Thanks, Will
Dear Will:
     When a tissue valve has failed, it is generally replaced with another valve, either tissue or mechanical.  The additional surgeries have a somewhat higher mortality rate depending upon age, complications and similar factors.
Nathan