Systemic thromboembolism in mitral and aortic Starr-Edwards prostheses: a 10-19 year follow-up.

Our study comprised 302 consecutive patients seen between 1962 and 1971 who underwent mitral (MVR) (132 patients) or aortic valve replacement (AVR) (170 patients) with a Starr-Edwards prosthesis because of advanced mitral or aortic incompetence. The follow-up interval was 10-19 years. For more recent valve models (1200/1260 aortic or 6120/6310 mitral), the probability of a surviving patient remaining free of systemic thromboembolism after 10 years was 70% for MVR and 74% for AVR. The probability of freedom from thromboembolism was less than this for the earlier valve models; the probability for the entire group at 10 years was 66% and at 15 years was 58%, with no significant difference between AVR and MVR. About one-fourth of the patients with an embolism (20% MVR, 27% AVR) had more than one embolic event. Of all emboli, most (86% MVR, 84% AVR) were cerebral, about half (48% MVR, 57% AVR) left a neurologic deficit, and about one-tenth (11% MVR, 10% AVR) led to death. Of the predictive factors reviewed, the incidence of emboli was significantly higher only in patients with MVR considered to have inadequate anticoagulation (p less than 0.01) and in patients receiving model 6000 mitral prosthesis (p less than 0.02). This long-term follow-up study of patients with a Starr-Edwards prosthesis reveals that systemic embolism is a persistent and significant problem.