Twelve years' experience with the St. Jude Medical valve prosthesis

Lower anticoagulation for mechanical heart valves: Experience with the ATS bileaflet valve

“…Surprisingly, an erratic INR, merely a con­sequence of poor medical follow up, compromises ­survival. The incidence of thromboembolism and haem­orr­hage for ATS valves, in our experience, seems to compare favourably to those reported in some other mechanical valve series 12−14 . Moreover, aortic valve patients, in general, carry more risk for anticoagulation‐related haemorrhage than thromboembolic events under normal anticoagulation dosage, as advocated by some authors 15 .…”

“…The incidence of thromboembolism and haemorrhage for ATS valves, in our experience, seems to compare favourably to those reported in some other mechanical valve series. [12][13][14] Moreover, aortic valve patients, in general, carry more risk for anticoagulationrelated haemorrhage than thromboembolic events under 6 Our low intensive group 1 patients had few thromboembolic events despite some totally inadequate anticoagulation therapy (13% of patients were off anticoagulation for more than 1 year at follow up). Also anticoagulation-related haemorrhagic events occurred rarely in group 1 and no thrombosis has been found to date.…”

Follow-up Study of Aortic-Valve Replacement Surgery in Patients With Takayasu's Disease Complicated by Aortic Regurgitation.

“…In one report of Japanese patients with AR of other etiologies, a SJM valve prosthesis resulted in a 12-year freedom from re-operation of 99.5%, 11 and another reported a 10-year freedom rate from re-operation for valve-related complications of an aortic SJM of 92.1%. 12 Because of the high frequency of remote cardiovascular events in Takayasu's arteritis, careful observation, including postoperative steroid treatment, is vital.…”

Improved prognosis following renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system blockade in patients undergoing concomitant aortic and mitral valve replacement

“…The frequency of concomitant aortic and mitral valve surgery accounts for 3 to 14% of all valvular surgery [1][2][3][4][5]. Patients who undergo concomitant (dual) aortic and mitral valve replacement (DVR) have the worst outcome, with a 10-year mortality of 30-50% [1,[6][7][8].…”