What Valve Type Did You Choose and Would You Do it Again?

[tom in MO]

1. Did you choose a Mechanical or Tissue Valve? Mechanical

2. What Brand and Model? St. Jude

3. Did you go with what your surgeon recommended? Yes

4. How long have you had it? 2 years

5. Would you make the same decision again? Yes

 

[Heart Of The Sunrise]

Take a look at these stats for this valve. Based on this it does look superior.
http://www.onxlti.com/low-anticoagulation-study/clinical-results/

However,Take it with a grain of salt as it is marketing data!

A lot of good info out there. That is why I choose it. I am an engineer. I treated it like an engineering project.:thumbup:

I had the valve with the attached graft and additional graft running all the way to the arch.

 

[Elgato]

Thanks for all the input.

I still cannot decide between mechanical or tissue but these two seem to be my top candidates.

On-X
or
Medtronic Freestyle

When I mentioned the On-X to my surgeon he said "that's a good valve but I usually use this one" (Sorin)

I would not like to be in the position of asking the surgeon to use something he is not familiar with.

Does anyone know the current sales statistics for valves? I would guess that ON-X is fairly small in the market.

 

[Heart Of The Sunrise]

Elgato;

If you really feel the ON-X valve is for you, I am sure if you contact ON-X they can give you the name of a surgeon near Tucson who implants it.:thumbup:

 

[avr8913]

I know that this was sort of covered over in the other Topic with a survey but I would like to know a little more.
Also this Topic seems to get a lot more traffic.

1. Did you choose a Mechanical or Tissue Valve?

2. What Brand and Model?

3. Did you go with what your surgeon recommended?

4. How long have you had it?

5. Would you make the same decision again?

Thank You

1. I chose mechanical, though it took a while to come to that choice.
2. I did not know I could choose which valve until I was so far down, CHF, I was not functioning well. I have a St Jude 25AGFN-756. Regent
3. Yes, since he made the choice.
4. 8 months
5. Yes, I would choose this valve.

 

[MarkU]

I know that this was sort of covered over in the other Topic with a survey but I would like to know a little more.
Also this Topic seems to get a lot more traffic.

1. Did you choose a Mechanical or Tissue Valve?

I chose a mechanical valve on the strong recommendation of both my surgeon and cardiologist and to reduce the probablility of needing repeat surgery surgeries down the road.

2. What Brand and Model?

St. Jude

3. Did you go with what your surgeon recommended?

Yes

4. How long have you had it?

13 years, 3 months

5. Would you make the same decision again?

Interesting question. With the improvement in tissue valves in the past thirteen years, I think it would be much a tougher decision today, versus back in 2000. Back then the concensus was that tissue valves would last about 12-15 years. At age 47, I would have been looking at at least a couple more surgeries. The downside of the mechanical was having to be on Coumadin/Warfarin the rest of my life, but fortunately that hasn't been that big of an issue for me.

I was first diagnosed at age 5 and was asymptomatic until age 47. Through the years I always remember my doctors telling me not to have the surgery until I needed to in order to benefit from the improvements in the surgical technology.

Mark