Five-year clinical evalution of the St. Jude medical valve prosthesis in 136 patients

One hundred and thirty-six patients (June 1979, through May 1984) underwent mitral, aortic or double valve replacement and apico-aortic bypass with the St. Jude Medical (SJM) prosthesis, at Ryukyu University Hospital, Okinawa. Operative mortality for the entire group was 4.4 per cent. Late mortality from 1979–1984 was 6.1 per cent. There were no deaths related to mechanical failure. Warfarin anticoagulation was recommended for all patients. The incidence of thromboembolism was 0.76/100 patient years. Post operative catheterization studies in 21 patients one year after operation showed a satisfactory recovery of cardiac function. The SJM valve seems to be the satisfactory artificial valve in present use.