Guido J Van Nooten, Thierry Bové, Yves Van Belleghem, Katrien François, Frank Caes, Guy Vandenplas, Michel De Pauw, Yves Taeymans
BACKGROUND: Since May 1992 the Medtronic Open Pivot mechanical heart valve has been implanted routinely at the authors' institution. The study aim was to analyze, retrospectively, the 20-year clinical results of the valve. METHODS: Between May 1992 and December 2011 a total of 1,520 valves was inserted into 1,382 consecutive patients (1,012 aortic, 473 mitral, 26 tricuspid, 9 pulmonary). The mean age of the patients was 61±13.2 years. Preoperatively, 65% of the patients were in New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III or greater...
April 2014: Annals of Thoracic Surgery