Early Results of Aortic Valve Homograft Replacement

¹ Institute of Cardiopulmonary Diseases, University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, Brazil

The authors present the early results in 50 cases of aortic valve homograft replacement. The homografts were sterilized and preserved in 4.0 percent formaldehyde solution buffered to a 5.6 pH, as proposed by Paneth. Aortic valve replacement only was performed in 34 cases, open mitral commisurotomy in 11 cases, and mitral valve replacement with a Starr-Edwards prosthesis in five cases. The immediate mortality was 4 percent and the late mortality was 6 percent. The most important postoperative complications were myocardial infarction, transient atrioventricular block, acute bacterial endocarditis and the appearance of an aortic diastolic murmur of aortic insufficiency. The five deaths were caused by (1) cardiac arrest, (2) myocardial infarction, (3) and (4) low cardiac output due to aortic incompetence, and (5) acute bacterial endocarditis.