Xenoaortic bioprostheses in surgery of the infective endocarditis of tricuspid valve
The study summarizes the use of epoxy-treated xenoaortic bioprostheses in the surgery of isolated infectious failures of tricuspid valve in injection drug-addict (n=28) and nonaddict (n=5) patients. The early results of the operative interventions are rated as satisfactory: mean diastolic gradient in the prosthesis averaged 2,9 [2,5; 3,1] mm Hg, transprosthetic flow velocity - 76,0 [62,0; 87,0] cm/s, effective orifice area - 3,1 [2,9; 3,2] cm2. A repeated operation was performed on 10 patients in the long-term period for bioprosthetic dysfunction. The patients who persisted in intravenous drug injection (n=6) developed long-term prosthetic endocarditis within the period of 1 to 5 years postoperatively. In the patients who stopped taking drugs the dysfunction was produced in 7th to 9th years by primary tissue degeneration with associated calcification of biomaterial (n=4).