Mechanical versus biological valves

  Mechanical valves can be compared with biologic valves in the following ten areas.  Prosthetic heart valves are divided into biologic and mechanical valves. Cardiac surgery analyzes biologic valves as a way to replace a patient’s diseased valve by using a porcine or bovine pericardium in the form of a valve, which has the advantage of requiring only about six months of postoperative anticoagulation and no mechanical sound during auscultation, but has the disadvantage of not lasting as long as a mechanical valve, which is generally estimated to last about 15 years, which means that the valve may be replaced by surgery again in the future. Mechanical valves have a longer life span, basically a lifetime, but they require lifelong medication and are widely used in the immediate future because of the sound of the valve closing during auscultation.  For patients 60 years old, the choice of valve type is medically necessary to administer a bioprosthetic valve. The risk of thrombosis, being infected, and even bleeding is much greater in the elderly than in the young, and the adjustment of anticoagulant medications after mechanical valve surgery is relatively impaired, and the chance of anticoagulation complications such as bleeding and embolism is greatly advanced. The continuous administration of anticoagulation therapy for 3 months after bioprosthetic valve replacement, and the ability to stop anticoagulation after that, greatly reduces the chance of bleeding and embolism in the elderly, and in addition, the effectiveness of anti-infection of bioprosthetic valves is clearly superior to that of mechanical valves. Unfortunately, the progressive decline of bioprosthetic valves has a safe life span of 15 years.  Mechanical valves can be compared with biological valves in the following ten areas.  1, structural valve failure (SVD) mechanical valves do not have structural valve failure, biological valves have structural valve failure.  2, perivalvular leakage mechanical valve and biological valve no clear difference.  3, valve thrombosis mechanical valve in the incidence of valve thrombosis is greater than the incidence of biological valve valve thrombosis.  4, thromboembolism The incidence of thromboembolism of biological valves is better than the incidence of thromboembolism of mechanical valves.  5, Bleeding events The incidence of bleeding events in patients with biologic valve replacement is lower than the incidence of bleeding events after mechanical valve replacement.  6, prosthetic valve endocarditis mechanical valve and biological valve differences are not distinguishable.  7, The incidence of reoperation in patients after mechanical valve replacement is much lower than the incidence of reoperation in patients after biologic valve replacement.  8, There is no distinguishable difference between mechanical and biologic valves for distant mortality.  9, The difference between mechanical and biologic valves for valve-related death is not distinguishable.  10, Sexual valve-related damage is better with bioprosthetic valves than with mechanical valves.  The choice of mechanical or biologic valve membranes should be considered in terms of the valve’s respective characteristics. The age of the patient is mostly used as a reference in preoptic clinics. In young patients, mechanical valves are often used to prepare for a second valve replacement. For patients older than 60 years, biological valves are often used. The disadvantage, however, is that there is little chance of a second operation.