Use of fresh decellularized allografts for pulmonary valve replacement may reduce the reoperation rate in children and young adults: early report.

Background: Degeneration of xenografts or homografts is a major cause for reoperation in young patients after pulmonary valve replacement. We present the early results of fresh decellularized pulmonary homografts (DPH) implantation compared with glutaraldehyde-fixed bovine jugular vein (BJV) and cryopreserved homografts (CH).

Methods And Results: Thirty-eight patients with DPH in pulmonary position were consecutively evaluated during the follow-up (up to 5 years) including medical examination, echocardiography, and MRI.