title: Quality of life and mechanical heart valve sound.
abstract: Most currently used mechanical heart valve prostheses generate a distinct metallic sound at closure. Since this sound is often well audible to many patients it can significantly affect their quality of life after heart valve replacement. In this study of surviving patients after heart valve replacement with three types of Björk-Shiley valves (Shiley Inc., Irvine, Ca) one third of the patients claimed that they were in certain situations disturbed by the sound. Several factors were found to be of importance for the perception of mechanical heart valve noise, including age, sex, location of valve, configuration of the thorax, hearing ability and environmental background noise. Preoperative patient information can be of vital importance to avoid postoperative adverse patient reactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: L I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Thulin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006326:Heart Auscultation / Q000523:psychology*; D006347:Heart Sounds / Q000523:psychology*; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D011788:Quality of Life; D012803:Sick Role