Cary W. Akins

I. Prosthetic Valve Malfunction: What every physician needs to know. Types of malfunction Structural valve deterioration The principal complication plaguing cardiac bioprostheses is structural deterioration, often necessitating reoperation and prosthesis replacement. While newer bioprosthetic designs and surface treatments seem to have incrementally increased the lifespan of currently available bioprostheses, all bioprostheses are subject to loss…