Bovine vs. Porcine

[lynn]

Ok, I really, really think I'm going tissue

Bob has given me his opinions on tissue, so how about everyone else. If you got to pick bovine vs. porcine, how did you come up with your choice????

 

[Phyllis]

Dick chose Bovine because he wanted what was new at the time- Edwards Magna valve. It had a special anti calcification treatment- unfortunately, they came out with an even better treatment for it about a month after he had his AVR- kind of like buying a new model car too early , but we're hoping it was still a good choice!

 

[Jay F]

I remember the hot seat

I remember the hot seat

It was practically yesterday I was in you shoes. I asked 2 cards and finally the surgeon and decided tissue, but when it came down to P or B, my surgeon said Porcine. I did not even question his opinion. Fist of all after researching the surgeon, I found he was the pioneer in minimally invasive style surgery and performed hundreds of them per year. The man obviously has faith in a certain kind of product and I am sure does not want to see all those patients coming back with early failures or problems. He said he was a believer in state of the art technology so I went for it...........He is using the Medtronic Mosaic Ultra Porcine Prostisis. Good Luck to you, I hope you have an easy peacful decision.......Jay PS it was also hard for me to find understandable stats that could tell me which were better. Go with you heart and your surgeon.

 

[kodi]

My card said bovine and since it was not mechanical I said OK. In a way I was relieved since my brother had a porcine back in the early/mid 90s and had to have a second one after about 7 years and I hoped not to do that too soon.

 

[Marguerite53]

Sometimes I wonder if it has to do with who is the best salesman in the area! For whatever reason, my surgeon had CarpentieerEdwards brick-a-brack all over his desk. He was more famiiar with that particular brand of valve. I didn't want to travel away from home, he said he'd use it on himself....so I was fine with the bovine. If his experience had been to prefer the porcine...I would have gone piggie. To me, the surgeon was the most important factor. The valve, next. Some people have very strong feelings about which valve and that is absolutely the way they should address their choice.

As I understand it, they are built quite differently. The bovine is man-made from parts of the cow (pericardium....heart tissue). The porcine is the actual pig's valve that has obviously been modified somehow to fit the human. Am I right about that?

Also, of course, Marguerite is a famous cow in France....oui, oui, c'est une jolie bovine!!

Marguerite

 

[mitchner9g]

Edit. Misinfo Given.

 

[lynn]

Thank you everyone! Every little bit of info helps! I had faxed some questions to my surgeon and rec'd his response back just after I posted this. But, I had forgotten to ask about tissue valves, so I have a call into him. I did, however, ask about On-X vs. St. Jude and he picked the latter, I think because of it's long history.

I will go with whatever he suggests, he is the expert I just wanted to see if you all picked or left it up to your expert!

 

[Susan BAV]

Hi -

I was 42 and I picked my valve and then left it up to the expert also. I had read enough on this site about the Edwards bovine that I told my surgeon that was what I wanted. I had also read on this site to find a terrific surgeon and go with his recommendation. So I also asked him what he thought. My terrific surgeon recommended the porcine valve that I have.

I'm happy. So this little piggy went "whee, whee, whee, all the way home!"

There are some other Valvers on this site with a similar valve to mine.

 

[tobagotwo]

Just a note to avoid confusion...

The CEPM (Carpentier-Edwards Perimount Magna), as well as the other Edwards bovine pericardial valves (CEPs) and the Medtronic Mosaic are all stented valves. The CEPM's supraannular placement gives it bloodflow performance similar to a stentless valve, which Edwards advertises, often confusing people about whether it has a stent or not.

It does. The CEPM has an Elgiloy stent: http://www.edwards.com/products/heartvalves/magnaanimation.htm

The CEPM, the CEPs, the Medtronic Mosaic, the Medtronic stentless Freestyle, and the Toronto stentless valve all have similar performance when it comes to heart remodelling and other recovery characteristics. The stentless valves and the CEPM have somewhat lower aortic pressure gradients. One thing to realize about tissue valves is that the aortic pressure gradient goes down after they have been in place a while.

The CEPs do have a proven track record of 80% still implanted after 20 years in patients over 60. The Mosaic hasn't been out long enough to make such claims.

Best wishes,

 

[Susan BAV]

As per usual, nice information, Bob.

The little Medtronic card I have to carry around in my wallet says "Mosaic Porcine Heart Valve." Dr. Estioko highly recommended this valve. I'm happy with it.

However, when I got a packet of extra information in the mail about the valve, that I had sent off for post-op from Medtronic, one little item spooked me: something about the expectancy, which had a rather wide range.

So I asked my cardiologist about it and he said that one of the main ways I could get the most out of my valve was to take care of my teeth: getting frequent cleanings and using the necessary antibiotics properly, etc. Sounds simple enough. And, of course, the other issue: as Bob said, the Medtronic Mosaic hasn't been around long enough yet to make [greater] claims.

One more issue, which has been discussed many times, is that apparently younger people tend to wear their valves out sooner that older people.

But, I'm going to take care of myself, and my teeth, and hope to add to the long end of the valve's statistics.