[Quality of life after aortic valve replacement. Self-management or conventional anticoagulation therapy after mechanical valve replacement plus pulmonary autograft].
BACKGROUND
The improvement of quality of life gains increasing importance for the judgement of operative techniques. Besides the commonly used mechanical substitutes or bioprostheses for aortic valve replacement, the interest in the Ross procedure is growing. The aim of the study was to compare the quality of life after the Ross procedure with that after mechanical aortic valve replacement with two different anticoagulation regimes (self-management or conventional therapy).


RESULTS
Clinical, echocardiographic and quality of life investigations (SF-36) were performed in patients with mechanical aortic valve replacement and self-management of anticoagulation (group A, n = 20) or conventional anticoagulation therapy (group B, n = 20) and in patients after the Ross procedure (group C, n = 20). The mean ages were 59.5 +/- 9.2 (group A), 61.2 +/- 8.1 (group B) and 59.3 +/- 9 years (group C). Significantly lower values of quality of life (SF-36) were observed in group B compared with group A (5 of 9 subtests) and with group C (6 of 9 subtests) and also in the physical and mental health sum scales.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study the quality of life in patients after the Ross procedure and similarly after mechanical valve replacement and self-management of anticoagulation is superior to the quality of life after mechanical valve replacement and conventional anticoagulation.
Schmidtke
C
C
Klinik für Herzchirurgie Universitätsklinikum Lübeck Ratzeburger Allee 160 23538 Lübeck, Germany. schmidtk@medinf.mu-luebeck.de
Hüppe
M
M
Berndt
S
S
Nötzold
A
A
Sievers
H H
HH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000601:surgery*; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000469:parasitology*; D011664:Pulmonary Valve / Q000637:transplantation*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012648:Self Care / Q000523:psychology
D000925:Anticoagulants
Lebensqualität nach Aortenklappenersatz. Selbstmanagement oder konventionelle Antikoagulationstherapie nach mechanischem Klappenersatz versus pulmonaler Autograft.