Allogenic heart valve bank in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery and Transplantology of Jagiellonian University in Cracow - 23 years experience in the treatment of aortic valve or aortic root diseases.

Allogenic aortic valves are widely used in case of native aortic valve or root disease as well as failed prosthetic valves with great success. At the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery and Transplantology of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, aortic valve or aortic root replacement with allogenic aortic valve has been performed for 23 years. Allogenic heart valve bank was founded in 1980.

Outlined history of the development of the world and Polish cardiac surgery.

It was the dream of humanity to perform surgery on an open non-beating heart. Scientific and medical discoveries five thousand years ago in China, partially adopted by the Western civilization, laid, through ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome and, later on in the Renaissance, the foundations for the development of empirical medicine. The 19th and the 20th centuries shoved dynamic scientific and technical development in various fields including medicine and surgery whose importance grew with the necessity to help the patients wounded in the wars.

[Surgical treatment of mitral valve malformations--25 years of experience].

During a period of 25 years (1979-2004), 24060 operations with extracorporeal circulation were performed. Of them 9536 (39.6%) were valvular procedures and 763 were combined with coronary bypass grafting.

Mineralization and organic phase modifications as contributory factors of accelerated degeneration in homograft aortic valves.

Background And Aim Of The Study: The study aim was to assess histological and mineralogical properties of leaflets in human, antibiotic-preserved aortic homograft valves (recovered during surgical replacement) in order to identify factors accounting for pathological changes leading to accelerated graft dysfunction. A comparison was made with aortic valves prepared for grafting, with a view to assessing morphological and mineralogical characteristics as a potential preimplantation risk factor.

Methods: Valve leaflets were examined with light and scanning electron microscopy.