The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 58, 630-637, Copyright © 1994 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Four-year experience with the CarboMedics valve: the North American experience. North American team of clinical investigators for the CarboMedics prosthetic heart valve
JG Copeland 3rd and GK Sethi
University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson.
A multicenter prospective trial of the CarboMedics valve was initiated in
July 1988. Twelve North American centers were included for the purpose of
establishing the safety and efficacy of this new rotatable, bileaflet,
pyrolytic-Carbon prosthesis. The study included 786 patients (using 891
valves) enrolled between July 1988 and August 1992. There were 447 male and
339 female patients from ages 2 to 83 years. Of the 618 primary replacement
operations (including double valves), 393 were aortic and 292 were mitral
valve replacements. Mean follow-up time was 16.1 months; 94.7% of patients
had completed documentation up to and including one year. New York Heart
Association functional class was III or IV for 84.4% of patients
preoperatively, and I and II in over 96% of patients for the first three
postoperative years. Survival for the entire group was 93% (622) at 1
month, 89% (504) at 1 year, 87% (213) at 2 years, and 85% (41) at 3 years.
There were no significant survival differences between primary and repeat
replacements or between aortic, mitral, and double-valve replacements.
Primary replacement patients with concomitant procedures (n = 241) had
slightly decreased survival rates compared with those who underwent
isolated procedures (isolated survival rate, 92% [98]; concomitant
procedure survival rate, 81% [59] at 2 years; p = 0.002). There was no
valve failure. Linearized rates (events per 100 patient-years) in primary
replacement patients after 30 days included the following: thrombosis,
0.39; thromboembolism, 0.92; hemolysis, 0.53; anticoagulant-related
hemorrhage, 2.36; paravalvular leak, 0.92; endocarditis, 0.53; reoperation,
0.92; and explantation, 0.66.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)