Tissue or Mechanical 2

[marie]

This is my first post so a little about myself. I am 66 years old and will need to have aortic valve replacement and mitral valve repair. I was diagnosed with a mild leaky aortic about 10 years ago and all went well until about 18 mts ago and it's been downhill every since. Mitral is moderate and only came up in the last year. I have been to see a surgeon and like him a lot.

I have longevity in my family so not sure about tissue (porcine) is what my doctor recommended but because of family longivity he says I have a decision to make.

Any recommendations or comments would be much appreciated.
Earline
PS I also had weight loss (rny) surgery in 2003 and my surgeon and my cardio feels that is a non issue as far as the surgery is concerned.

 

[Mary]

This is my first post so a little about myself. I am 66 years old and will need to have aortic valve replacement and mitral valve repair. I was diagnosed with a mild leaky aortic about 10 years ago and all went well until about 18 mts ago and it's been downhill every since. Mitral is moderate and only came up in the last year. I have been to see a surgeon and like him a lot.

I have longevity in my family so not sure about tissue (porcine) is what my doctor recommended but because of family longivity he says I have a decision to make.

Any recommendations or comments would be much appreciated.
Earline
PS I also had weight loss (rny) surgery in 2003 and my surgeon and my cardio feels that is a non issue as far as the surgery is concerned.

Hi Marie,
Welcome to VR!
If you haven't visited with a surgeon yet, you might wait and get his recommendation. Sometimes the surgeon has a different viewpoint than the cardiologist.
Thanks for the background information concerning your upcoming replacement. And on another note, if you will copy this post, and move it to the pre-surgery forum as a new thread, I think you will receive more posts.

 

[Ross]

Marie at 66 you should do well regardless of choice.

 

[tprice54]

either way

either way

The saying around here, the only bad choice is doing nothing at all...the right valve for you is the one you decide on. Read as much here as possible, ask questions. When I had surgery in January, I really felt either valve would do just fine, thanks to this site.

 

[marie]

thank you for all of your input. I have been reading the threads today. Don't even know what to ask at this point.
Earline

 

[Phyllis]

Welcome, Marie. It would probably be a good idea to start with the thread on valve selection and then come back with any questions you may have. The new cow valves with calcification treatments are talking about 20 years for longevity. Has the surgeon given you a date yet?

 

[marie]

date

date

I do not have a date. I am waiting until after the holidays with permission from my surgeon as long as my symptoms don't get any worse

 

[ALCapshaw2]

This is my first post so a little about myself. I am 66 years old and will need to have aortic valve replacement and mitral valve repair. I was diagnosed with a mild leaky aortic about 10 years ago and all went well until about 18 mts ago and it's been downhill every since. Mitral is moderate and only came up in the last year. I have been to see a surgeon and like him a lot.

I have longevity in my family so not sure about tissue (porcine) is what my doctor recommended but because of family longivity he says I have a decision to make.

Any recommendations or comments would be much appreciated.
Earline
PS I also had weight loss (rny) surgery in 2003 and my surgeon and my cardio feels that is a non issue as far as the surgery is concerned.

Greetings Marie,

Since you have a family history of Long Life, I suggest you ask your surgeon about the Durability of the Tissue Valves since all tissue valves will eventually 'wear out' and need replacement.

The (untreated) Bovine Pericardial Valves have a good history with 90% durability at 18 years when implanted in patients over age 60. They now have some sort of 'anticalcification' treatment that they 'hope' will extend that lifetime to 25 years or more.

I do NOT know the durability of the new / treated Porcine valves, but UNTREATED porcine valves are known to have a relatively short lifespan (8 to 12 years typically).

The Gold Standard for Durability in Mechanical Valves is the STANDARD St. Jude which has been around for over 30 years. (see www.sjm.com)

The relatively new On-X Valves offer many technical improvements over the older designs (see www.onxvalves.com). They were introduced in 1996 and are approaching 60,000 units in the world market. They received FDA approval for use in the USA about 5 years ago.

'AL Capshaw'