Re: Aortic Valve Replacement

Posted By Susan on February 12, 1999 at 22:52:12:

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
Hi Will, I don't know how many people out there have had good luck with the tissue valves, but I do know of several on the various sites who have had to have repeat surgery.  Yes, they can do repeat surgeries.  I'm not sure if they will replace a tissue valve with a tissue valve at this time though--would probably depend on the age of the patient.  I think one can stand just so many heart surgeries and the mechanical valve is supposed to last basically a lifetime.  You are right about the technology though--who knows what could be available in 10 years.  I guess I'm just a chicken though and was more afraid that it would be 2 instead of 10 when my next time came, and would rather deal with the coumadin!  Hope whatever choice your dad makes, he will be fine and patched up for a long, long time!      Susan