Heart & vascular pathology
Valvular disease
Prosthetic valves
Author: R. Amita, M.D.
Last author update: 1 December 2014
Last staff update: 31 December 2020
Copyright: 2014-2024, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Prosthetic valves [title] valvular heart disease
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Radiology images | Case reports | Treatment | Complications | Gross description | Diagrams / tables | Gross images | Microscopic (histologic) images | Additional referencesCite this page: Amita R. Prosthetic valves. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/heartprostheticvalves.html. Accessed April 19th, 2024.
Definition / general
- Prosthetic cardiac devices improve survival and greatly increase the quality of life in most patients
Radiology images
Images hosted on other servers:
Starr-Edwards mechanical valve
Bjork-Shiley concavo-convex valve
St Jude Medical bileaflet prosthesis
Prosthetic aortic valve
Aortic prosthetic valve before & after IV heparin
Case reports
- 30 year old woman with prosthetic heart valve thrombosis, anticoagulation and pregnancy (Neth Heart J 2007;15:306)
- 47 year old woman with mitral valve sparing procedures and prosthetic heart valve failure (Can J Cardiol 2009;25:e86)
- 65 year old man and 59 and 60 year old women with thrombolytics and left sided prosthetic valve thrombosis (Tex Heart Inst J 1998;25:130)
Treatment
- The American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC) task force recommends bioprostheses for those over 65 undergoing aortic valve replacement (see table below)
- For younger patients undergoing aortic valve replacement, a modern bileaflet mechanical valve appears to be optimal
Complications
- Common prosthesis associated complications are:
- Thrombosis, thromboembolism
- Infection on annulus or biological tissues
- Structural or nonstructural dysfunction
- All mechanical prostheses have an absolute requirement for anticoagulant treatment
- Thromboembolism has been reported to occur at a higher rate with Starr-Edwards versus Bjork-Shiley valves
- Bileaflet prostheses such as the St. Jude valve appear to have the lowest risk of thromboembolism
- Rates of thromboembolism are higher following mitral valve replacement than following aortic valve replacement
Gross description
- Mechanical prostheses
- Ball valves
- Disc valves
- Bileaflet valves
- Biological prosthetic valves
- An autologous or autogeneous valve
- Autograft valve
- Homograft (or allograft) valve
- Heterograft (or xenograft) valve
- Bovine pericardial valves
- See Heart 2002;87:583 for a full description of these valves
- Gross findings to be recorded from an explanted prosthetic valve: see table below
Diagrams / tables
Images hosted on other servers:
Prosthetic cardiovascular devices
AHA/ACC recommendations
Gross examination of prosthetic heart devices
Gross images
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shows significant pannus
Mechanical mitral valve prosthesis
Synthetic chordae tendinae
Microscopic (histologic) images
Images hosted on other servers:
endocardium, native
mitral leaflet tissue
Synthetic chorda surrounded by tissue fibrosis
Segment of coronary artery
Additional references
