Young Tissue Valvers longevity = Young Mech Valvers

[Karlynn]

I think you are probably right, some of the symptons were probably blamed on hormones or nerves. it would be interesting to see

I have no doubt. 20 years ago my first two doctors blaimed my described symptoms on hysteria basically. One wanted me to take Valium to "cure" me. 5 years later the surgeon that performed my VR told me that I basically had no mitral valve it was so destroyed.

 

[OldManEmu]

Qol

Qol

Here are a number of articles regarding valve noise on perceived Quality of life, I know it only contains those patients that responded to the survey but I think with QOL issues unlike hard medical statistics there is no way you can get perfect stats as patients can't be forced to respond to these types of surveys. Both surveys appear to show some of the patients had long term problems with valve noise. So have a read and give me some feed back.

http://www.thieme-connect.com/ejournals/abstract/thoracic/doi/10.1055/s-2006-925825


http://ejcts.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/24/1/52

This is a further detailed explanation of the second link above.

http://www.ismaap.org/20.0.html

 

[MikeHeim]

I'm just impressed that someone was able to post an article on this subject and everyone seems in agreement that it isn't biased in one direction or the other!

As Bob said and others mentioned, the main issue with this type of study is that it can only show the effectiveness of valve surgery and valve technology 20 (or more) years ago. The valves today, both mech and tissue, have been improved over and over to the point that I'm not sure how relevant these numbers are at all. 20 years from now people will probably be looking at obsolete survival data with regards to the ON-X and newer Medtronics valves. Hopefully, by that point we will either have mech valves without anticoagulation and/or tissue valves that don't calcify.

 

[Karlynn]

I'm just impressed that someone was able to post an article on this subject and everyone seems in agreement that it isn't biased in one direction or the other!

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but St. Jude has stopped sending me checks for every valve they sell. So the payoff for recruiting people to the mechanical way of life just isn't there anymore.

 

[geebee]

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but St. Jude has stopped sending me checks for every valve they sell. So the payoff for recruiting people to the mechanical way of life just isn't there anymore.

Hey - you just don't know the right people.

 

[BDMc]

Good Thread!

Good Thread!

Thanks David! I think the choice of valves is as personal as it gets. As Karlynn points out, quality of life is very subjective, and varies from person to person. I really enjoy hearing that both types of valves are having good results these days. There are so many variables to consider, that I don't think any of these studies is really conclusive. For myself, my mechanical has worked great, despite being recalled. My warfarin troubles seem quite minor in the big picture. I have lived with a lot of anxiety over the valve, but would that have been much different with tissue? I don't know... I suspect that all the technologies are improving at pretty remarkable rates. Hopefully techniques are too! So everyones chances should be improving. May your valves last as long as you need em! Brian