Cardiac valve replacement with the stabilized glutaraldehyde porcine aortic valve: indications, operative results, and followup.

Porcine aortic valve xenografts stabilized with glutaraldehyde have been implanted in 91 patients with acquired and congenital valvular heart disease. The indications for use of this valve have included age, previous sensitivity to anticoagulants, or a concomitant condition contraindicating anticoagulant therapy. There were two operative deaths and three late deaths in 44 mitral, 25 aortic, 16 aortic-mitral, 5 mitral-tricuspid, and one aortic-mitral-tricuspid replacements. There were no valve failures from cusp rupture, although one valve was replaced because of annular disproportion. There was one inhospital stroke but no late emboli in a 3 to 33 month followup period, 16.5; 72 patients are functional class 1, 10 class 2, and one patient is class 3. In appropriate patients this biologic tissue valve relieves the hemodynamic abnormalities of valvular heart disease, is associated with a low embolization rate without anticoagulant therapy and, to date, has been durable.