Early results of a new mechanical tri-leaflet heart valve prosthesis--"Tricusp": an animal study.

Objective: A new tri-leaflet mechanical heart valve made of titanium was inserted in the mitral position to evaluate early results.

Methods And Results: Five sheep were followed between 3 and 6 months (mean 4.7 months) and performed very well clinically during the follow-up period.

In vivo biostability of a poly(carbonate-urea)urethane graft.

In peripheral and coronary bypass surgery, the patency of prosthetic grafts is inferior to autologous vein, mainly due to intimal hyperplasia caused in part by compliance mismatch between rigid graft and elastic host artery. We have developed a compliant poly(carbonate-urea)urethane vascular graft "MyoLink" which was biostable in vitro degradation studies. To further investigate the biostability of this material, we report a long-term in vivo study on 8 beagle dogs (15+/-3 kg) implanted with this graft (ID 5mm) in the aorta-iliac position; three grafts were harvested at 18 months to assess short-term biodegradation, with one animal having died from an unrelated infection.