I am 49 … not out, how about you TAVI ?

This post was written after coming across a case report  Oxford medical case report.   What is the life of a prosthetic Aortic valve? The standard answer needs to be, mechanical valves can last up to 25  years or more. But, we are in a techno-conflict era.  Instead of working on the longevity of the valve, ( with concerns for long-term OAC )  we fell for the biological valves. Curiously, this has made the durability of the valve, a less relevant discussion in many centers. We get excited when some company brings out a long-lasting bio-prosthetic valve that can live up to a maximum of 15 years. Now, the biological valve comes in a new avatar ie TAVI, in a big way. Soon, we may celebrate an event free 10 years after TAVI. Going percutaneous is transformative. But at what cost? Fusion of metallurgy, chemistry, and pharmacology should make it possible for in-vivo metal valves to be safe for 75 years of human life span. The irony is we almost had one, One valve’s longevity was consistently exceeding the patient’s life span,(at least as far as we observed in the Rheumatic heart disease)  This has been the star of all valves. We know what happened to that valve. This SE valve in the mitral position Final message Most SE valves are implanted in the mitral position. Starr-Edward in an Aortic position working for 50 years is a big proof of reality. Of course, we can’t extrapolate with a single case report. We...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Uncategorized prosthetic aortic valve starr edwards valve tavi valve Source Type: blogs