Pig Valve Replacement?
Blog Topics: Pig Valve Replacement; Porcine Valves; Heart Valve Replacements; Prosthetic Valves
Yes. It’s true… For patients requiring heart valve replacement surgery, one of your surgical options will be a pig valve replacement (also known as a porcine valve and a bioprosthetic heart valve).
I’ll never forget when I was diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis. That was a difficult experience. Open heart surgery was definitely not in my “life plan”. The challenge of digesting that diagnosis was compounded when I learned that a pig valve might offer my dilated heart relief.
I remember thinking, “HUH??!!! A PIG VALVE REPLACEMENT? YOU WANT TO PUT A PIG VALVE IN MY HEART?”
As I would later learn, pig valves have been used as human heart valve transplants for over twenty years. Companies including Edwards Lifesciences and St. Jude Medical are the leading pig valve replacement manufacturers. Interestingly enough, cow valve tissue is also used in the construction of pericardial heart valve replacements - known as bovine valves.
It’s actually quite interesting… By some amazing twist of evolution, human heart valves and pig valves are very similar in structure and function. That said, pig valve replacement surgery is rather common. I’ve actually toured a pig valve manufacturing center of Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine, California. It was fascinating to see the complex process by which pig valves are fitted for heart valve replacement operations.
I’ve written some prior blogs on this topic. Click these hyperlinks to learn more about heart valve replacements - including pig valves, cow valves, homografts and mechanical valves:
- Can You Tell Me More About Pig Valve Replacements?
- How Long Do Pig Valve Replacements Last?
- What Are The Pros/Cons Of Mechanical Or Bioprosthetic Heart Valve Replacements?
- What Are Cow Valve Replacements?.
I hope that helps explain a little more about pig valves!
Keep on tickin!
Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.
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May 3rd, 2009 at 9:00 pm
I just stumbled across your website and first off I want to thank you for putting all this great information together in one place! My husband Mark Dayley is 2 1/2 weeks into his recovery of his 3rd valve replacement surgery. He was born with a genetic defect passed through his mother (her father died of aortic stenosis) and was diagnosed at 3 months old. At age 13 he had surgery where the surgeon opted to go in and weaken his valve by cutting it. This allowed his valve to stretch and worked fine until he was age 29. At that time he underwent surgery again and the Ross Procedure was performed. 14 years 8 months later he had to have surgery again and this time was given a pig valve. I have seen other people on your website (including yourself) who had the Ross Procedure done. What we were told when we had this latest surgery was that the Ross Porcedure was not commonly done anymore due to the fact that the pressure on the aortic value is much higher than the pulmonary value. Since this is the case and the pulmonary valve was not made to take the amount of pressure the aortic value was made for, many of the valves failed. That was the case with my husband. His aortic valve (aka his formed pulmonary value) was not pumping blood correctly. In fact, 2/3s of the blood was falling back into his heart. This created other problems: he had an enlarged heart, a very weak heart, it had thinned out and the surgeon said it was “a very sick heart”. He repeated this several times after he met me in the waiting room to tell me how the surgery went. They had to give him a new valve, rebuild his aortic root and repair his aortic arch. As I understand it, Mark is somewhat of a miracle man. They aren’t sure why he was even alive. So I guess my question or concern has to do with the Ross Procedure and if it is still considered a good option for people. Mark chose a pig value over a mechanical value because he did not want to be on Coumadin (sp?) for the rest of his life. The surgeon also told us that there is a new procedure that is awaiting FDA approval where they can go through the artery near the groin (like they did with his balloon pump) and change the valve that way. Have you heard of this? It sounded pretty successful with the information I have found so far. If you have any questions for me, please e-mail me back at dayleys@cableone.net. We are scheduled to see his surgeon in 10 days. Thanks again! Kathryn Dayley