Abstract
From March 1988 to June 1994, 275 CarboMedics cardiac valve prostheses(199 mitral, 70 aortic and 3 tricuspid) were implanted in 226 consecutive patients(mean age 39 years, male/female 90/136) by one surgical team operating on adult cardiac patients at Kyungpook University Hospital. Total follow up represented 16,848 patient-months(mean 76 months) and follow up rate was 96%. One hundred and forty-nine patients(66%) wer in NYHA functional class III or IV preoperatively, and 204 patients(99.5%) were in class I or II postoperatively. Early mortality was 4.9% and late death was 9.3%. The actuarial survival at 81 months was 86.l2$\pm$3.1%. The linearized incidence of valve-related death, prosthetic valve thrombosis, anticoagulation-related hemorrhage, non-structural dysfunction and reoperation were 0.71%, 0.43%, 0.07%, 0.21%, and 0.14% respectively. The 81-month rate of freedom from all valve related complications and deaths including hospital mortality was 88.1$\pm$2.5%. Thee facts suggest that the CarboMedics cardiac valve has excellent result, low incidence of valve-related complications and no structureal deterioration.