[ Ссылка ] - The durability of a heart valve replacement should be a critical consideration for patients selecting a new heart valve. According to Dr. Ibrahim Sultan, Surgical Director of the Heart Valve Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, "Patients need to consider to durability research. The Epic valve, for example, has great long-term results with 96% freedom from reoperation at 10 years."
To learn more about the durability of biological heart valve replacements, we interviewed Dr. Sultan, who has performed over 2,000 heart valve operations including open heart, minimally-invasive and non-invasive transcatheter procedures.
Key questions answered by Dr. Sultan include:
1. Why and when do patients need a heart valve replacement operation?
2. What are the different approaches used to access the heart and replace a diseased heart valve?
3. How long do heart valve replacements last? Is durability different for mechanical and tissue valve replacements made from cow and pig hearts?
4. For patients who do not want to be on blood thinners (e.g. warfarin), are new technologies enhancing the durability of tissue valves? If so, what are those technologies?
5. The Epic Plus is the next generation of the original Epic valve that has already been implanted in over 250,000 patients around the world since 2008. What is the expected durability of this biological heart valve replacement over a 10-year period?
6. Is it true that 96 out of 100 patients did not have deterioration of the Epic mitral valve 10 years after implantation?
7. Are there other innovations in the Epic Plus valve that patients should know about specific to durability of heart valve replacements and the lifetime management of heart valve disease?
8. How are "Valve-in-Valve" therapies providing patients a new path to better manage the lifetime management of heart valve disease? Is the Epic Plus surgical valve designed for re-operations without the need for open-heart surgery using transcatheter valves?
9. How are radiopaque markers helping cardiologists and surgeons perform Valve-in-Valve procedures?
10. What is Dr. Sultan's number one piece of advice for patients needing a heart valve replacement?
To learn more about the Epic Plus Valve, please visit [ Ссылка ].
