Five to Eight-Year Follow-up of Patients Undergoing Porcine Heart-Valve Replacement

To evaluate the clinical course after porcine heart-valve replacement, we followed 128 patients for five to eight years after surgery. Aortic-valve replacement was performed in 47 patients, mitral-valve replacement in 62, and combined aortic-valve and mitral-valve replacement in 19. Four patients died within 30 days of surgery (operative mortality, 3 per cent), and 20 died later (16 per cent); the actuarial probability of survival at eight years for all patients was 80 +/- 4 per cent (mean +/- S.E.M.). Thromboemboli were found in two of 43 patients after aortic-valve replacement, in nine of 62 after mitral-valve replacement, and in four of 18 after combined aortic-valve and mitral-valve replacement. Valve dysfunction resulted from bacterial endocarditis in five patients (4 per cent) and from primary valve dysfunction in another five.