title: Clinical experience with the Smeloff-Cutter aortic valve prosthesis: an 8-year follow-up study.
abstract: A total of 46 patients who survived aortic valve replacement with the present model Smeloff-Cutter prosthesis between 1968 and 1973 were followed up postoperatively. All patients received oral anticoagulant therapy. The average age at implantation was 44 +/- 13 (mean +/- standard deviation) years; 36 patients were male and 10 were female. The valve damage was caused by rheumatic disease in 19 (41 percent), infective endocarditis in 14 (30 percent), congenital heart disease in 7 (15 percent) and other factors in 6 (13 percent). Late death occurred in eight patients (17 percent). All available patients were followed up until December 1976. During the 8 years of follow-up study, seven patients, including four heroin addicts, had postoperative endocarditis (15 percent); five of the seven had cerebral involvement, possibly from septic emboli. Four patients were reoperated on; three had active endocarditis and one had a high transvalve pressure gradient. The mean follow-up time was 4.9 years per patient. Of the 38 living patients, 33 have functional improvement and are still being followed up. Only one patient had a bland embolism to a systemic artery. No ball variance or other types of material failure have been detected. Although the chronic aspects of valve disease remain after prosthetic valve replacement, the Smeloff-Cutter aortic prosthesis deserves strong consideration when selecting a rigid prosthesis for aortic valve replacement.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000502:physiology / Q000601:surgery*; D001778:Blood Coagulation Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D002140:California; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D004696:Endocarditis / Q000209:etiology; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D006402:Hematologic Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010701:Phonocardiography; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000401:mortality; D011312:Pressure; D011655:Pulmonary Embolism / Q000453:epidemiology