Sex‐based difference in anticoagulated patients with mechanical prosthetic heart valves and long‐term mortality risk

Abstract

Valve replacement with biological or mechanical prosthetic heart valves (MPHV) represents a therapeutic option that allowed a marked improvement in the long-term prognosis of patients with valvular heart disease, with MPHV possibly being associated with a slightly better 10-and 15-year survival than biological valves in patients aged 50-70 years 1 and lower valve-related morbidity. 2 In a large study performed in the 90's including elderly high-risk patients undergoing valve replacement, the incidence rate of mortality in the group of MPHV receivers was 9.6%/year. 3 However, the types of MPHV have changed over the last decades with the new bi-leaflet