heart valve replacement of a replaced heart valve

[jay_hoo]

i have had 1 heart surgery back in 1992. i was 8 years old and was not to sure what all was going on. i am now 25 and living a some what unhealthy life which i am now trying to fix up. i was just wondering if anyone nows how long the metal valve i had put in will last normally. i know every person is a little diffrent. any info would help alot. i have been told the valve will last between 15 to 20 years. has any body had something simallar. i had a stroke about 4 years after my heart surgery do to i was on the wrong blood meds. so that is something that has to be taken in to my doctors desition to.

thanks

[ed34]

20-25 years is really a stab in the dark because those valves have only really been standardised in the last 30 or so years. So you would expect a huge queue of people now waiting for replacements but I don't believe that is the case. They are made from very durable materials including titanium. Along with blood thinning drugs it is likely they will far out survive 20-25 years. A simple echocardiogram can detect if there is a problem with the valve, it will see how much blood is leaking through it. The amount of regurgitation will determine the Cardiologists opinion for a replacement. Until this test is performed, no one can really say how well the valve is performing. An echocardiogram is not a scary thing, you have seen the machines used on pregnant women, where they use gel and a wand which they move over the surface of the skin. All your valves can be checked in this procedure as well as how well your heart is performing. It only takes about 20 mins.

[jay_hoo]

i do not think it will be the valve that i will have problems with i think it will be the muscles around the valve that are going to be growing on to the valve it self. my heart muscle i do believe might be growing on to it. i read some were that the valve it self should not be the problem what the problem might be is the fact that the muscle wil just over grow. stress and sickness does not help any of that either.

[ed34]

usually medication prevents stenosis, but if tissue overgrowth does prevent a problem then I should think it likely it can be tidied up using catheter technology rather than open heart surgery.

[kenkeith]

From what I have read a metal valve should/could last indefinitely. There are now methods of precoating....optimum surface porosity of a prosthetic heart valve was obtained with use of microspheres less than 40 microns in diameter. A thin and translucent neointima then forms on the valve surface, so thin that its nutrition is supplied by diffusion and thickening will not take place, thereby avoiding interference with the functioning disc. Larger microspheres tend to promote clotting and buildup of fibromyxoid soft tissue, which may cause such interference.

[jay_hoo]

what you said sounds so kool. all i know so far is my heart muscle is gowing over the valve and that is what my problem so far is and i know that what i eat and the amount of stress i take in has alot to do with the way it works.