Long-term follow up of patients undergoing reoperative surgery with aortic or mitral valve replacement using a St. Jude Medical prosthesis.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Between June 1978 and September 2002, a total of 440 reoperative open-heart patients (mean age 62 +/- 14 years; range: 18-91 years), following various primary cardiac operations, underwent single-valve replacement with the St. Jude Medical (SJM) heart valve. Of 241 patients having aortic replacement (AVR) and 199 mitral valve replacement (MVR), 86 (35%) and 42 (21%), respectively, underwent concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting.

The St. Jude Medical cardiac valve prosthesis: long-term follow up of patients having double valve replacement.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Between October 1977 and February 2002, a total of 343 patients (mean age 62 +/- 13 years; range: 19-91 years) underwent double valve replacement (DVR) with the St. Jude Medical (SJM) heart valve. Among the replacements, 337 (98%) were aortic and mitral in nature.

Anticoagulation for mechanical heart valves: a role for patient based therapy.

Anticoagulation management issues following mechanical cardiac valve replacement revolve around target levels for chronic oral anticoagulation. While these levels are important, they are only one aspect of a follow-up process that should be individualized to each patient with a mechanical cardiac valve and coupled with patient education, risk factor modification, and long-term follow-up. It is difficult to separate patient related risk factors, those traditional risk factors that markedly increase the incidence of potential valve related events (i.

Use of peripheral ultrafiltration in the postoperative cardiac surgery patient.

Background: : After cardiac surgery, most patients have development of third-space fluid retention, commonly treated with diuretics. In some patients diuretics are ineffective. In this subset, a simplified system for ultrafiltration was used for fluid extraction.

The St. Jude Medical cardiac valve prosthesis: a 25-year experience with single valve replacement.

Background: From October 1977 to October 2002, 4,480 patients (age range, 17 to 94 years; average, 64 +/- 13 years) underwent single valve replacement with the St. Jude Medical heart valve. Of 2,982 aortic (AVR) and 1,498 mitral valve replacements (MVR), concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting was performed on 42% and 33%, respectively.