Before a patient undergoes heart valve replacement surgery, the surgeon will ask the patient and family for their opinion on what type of valve to use. Patients themselves lack knowledge in this area and often do not know how to decide when they are suddenly asked. The type of valve chosen can still have an impact on the patient’s quality of survival after surgery. Ideally, the prosthetic valve should be durable, last as long as possible, and not cause other problems for the patient. The following is an introduction to the issues you may be concerned about (a colloquial version is used to make it easier to understand): The valves currently available are divided into two main categories: (a) mechanical valves: the advantage is that they last a long time; the valve itself can generally work continuously for 50 or even 100 years or more, so for the average patient, the mechanical valve is adequate as far as duration of use is concerned, and ” never wears out”. The disadvantages are: (1) the need for lifelong medication, called “warfarin”, the purpose of which is anticoagulation, the drug will bleed if you eat more, and eat less to achieve the anticoagulant effect, and the need to periodically draw blood to review the warfarin eat appropriate. Generally after the mechanical flap is replaced, the bedside doctor will inform you how to take the medication and how often to draw blood for laboratory tests, so for most patients to do regular medication and testing, nothing will go wrong. Currently, thousands of patients in our country have their mechanical valves replaced every year and very few have problems. (2) mechanical valve activity with sound, generally only the patient can hear, in the early postoperative period a little uncomfortable, time will get used to, when you can not hear the sound is not a good sign, need to be alert to whether the valve is out of order? (b) Biological flap: the advantages are: close to its own natural valve, hemodynamic slightly better than mechanical flap, after surgery only need to receive anticoagulation for 4-6 months on it. The disadvantages are: the service life of the biologic valve is shorter (mainly valve calcification), currently the biologic valve can only be used for 10-15 years, this is for most people, there are also individual phenomena, some people do not work after 2-3 years, and some people are still good after 20-30 years of use. Generally speaking, the younger the patient is, the shorter the service life of the biological flap due to its vigorous metabolism. At present, our country uses to do more mechanical flap is imported double-leaf mechanical flap, is also currently considered the best mechanical flap, the price is between 15000-18000 (roughly), of course, mechanical flap also has domestic, the price difference of about 10,000 yuan, for patients with financial difficulties is also a good choice; currently the domestic use of biological flap are imported, the price is about 18000-23000 ( roughly). So what kind of valve should I choose? Generally speaking, the vast majority of patients in our country are not willing to undergo secondary surgery and choose mechanical valves; whereas in Western countries, where patients have different views (e.g., not willing to take medication every day) as well as different medical conditions (free) and are not afraid to do secondary surgery, most of their patients choose biological valves. As far as the medical staff is concerned, we recommend that patients over 60 years of age (especially over 65 years of age), or those with fertility requirements, or those who are not willing to take daily medication, or those who have contraindications to anticoagulation may choose to have their biologic flap replaced, and the rest of the patients choose the mechanical flap. So many people choose mechanical flaps, and mechanical flaps can malfunction? This is very unlikely. The quality of valves available today is so good that it is extremely rare to have reports of problems with the valve itself. Of course, if you don’t take enough anticoagulants, you can easily form clots that can cause the valve to open and close improperly, but the incidence of this is also very low. So, there is no one valve that is best; each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, with full knowledge of the above, I hope you will make the right choice when your doctor asks the patient and family for their opinion on “what kind of valve to use” before undergoing heart valve replacement surgery.