PubMed1987
We report the mid-term results obtained with 279 "low profile" Liotta xenografts implanted at the Hôpital de la Pitié, Paris, in 257 patients between February, 1981 and November, 1984. There were 86 aortic, 138 mitral, 11 triscupid and 22 mitral-aortic valve replacements. The wavy suture ring of the prosthesis makes it "low profile". The Liotta valve is of particular interest in certain anatomical situations such as aortic annulus more dilated than the supra-coronary aorta, or small right and left ventricular cavities. The overall operative mortality rate was 8.6%. The 236 survivors were followed up for 3 to 48 months, a total of 374.3 patients-years. The overall actuarial survival rate at 3 years is 92.2%. Although there were few thromboembolic accidents, about one-third of the patients remain under anticoagulant therapy (0.86 episodes for 100 patients-years). Globally, 98.1% of the patients are free of any thromboembolic accident. Deterioration occurred 29 and 44 months respectively after implantation in two patients aged 9 and 20 years (0.57 episodes for 100 patients-years). Three cases of endocarditis on prosthesis were observed. Altogether, almost 91.2% of the patients have had no complication for 3 years, and indeed they functionally improved, most of them now being in class I or II (aortic valve 97%, mitral valve 87.2%). Thirty-eight patients underwent repeated catheterization at rest and during exercise. Mean transvalvular gradient was 12.4 mmHg in aortic valve patients and 5.9 mmHg in mitral valve patients. Mean functional valve area was 1.6 cm in aortic valve patients and 2.1 cm in mitral valve patients, and it clearly increased during exercise.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)