Does mechanical versus bioprosthetic valve replacement affect the incidence of MAPE in middle-aged patients?
Current data do not support lowering the usual age cutoff for tissue valve implantation below 65 years.
In middle-aged patients, MAPE may occur more often in patients with bioprosthetic valves, but definitive conclusions necessitate the accumulation of additional follow-up. At present, these data do not support lowering the usual cutoff for implantation of a tissue valve below the age of 65.
Kulik et al. (2006) studied this question.