The Use of Mechanical Valves in the Treatment of Valvular Heart Disease

Some 25 years after the implantation of a substitute cardiac valve, the choice of a prosthesis still remains difficult and controversial. However, progress has been made in creating new models of cardiac valvular prostheses and we are somewhat closer to the “ideal prosthesis” which should have physiological hemodynamics, be thromboresistant, and have lifetime durability (1). After using ball, disc and biological prostheses, we began at the San Camillo Hospital in Rome to use the St. Jude Medical® (SJM) bileaflet valve in 1978, after we had learned from in vitro studies about the favorable hemodynamics of the valve (2). This report will give clinical and practical data on this prosthesis from the Cardiac Surgery Center at San Camillo Hospital in Rome.