Ionescu-Shiley valve failure. I: Experience with 125 standard-profile explants.

Abstract

A group of standard-profile Ionescu-Shiley valve implants, 357 aortic and 190 mitral, was reviewed for cases of failure requiring surgical explantation. To date, 90 (25.2%) of the aortic and 35 (18.4%) of the mitral valves have failed, and are the subject of this analysis. Observations of these explants confirm previous suggestions about the clinical and pathologic patterns of the Ionescu-Shiley valve's failure, but are extended in this study to allow more confident statistical analyses. Cusp tear with insufficiency remains the most important reason for explantation, precipitating removal to date of 19.1% of the aortic and 10.0% of the mitral valves implanted. This difference, aortic versus mitral, is significant (p less than 0.006) and the reverse of observations made in other studies of pericardial valves. In this review there is no significant difference in the proportion of aortic and mitral valves that failed with calcification (2.2% and 3.1%, respectively). Aortic Ionescu-Shiley valves failing with tears had a mean of 3.1 tears per valve, whereas mitral valves had 1.2. Aortic valves also showed considerably more pretear wear than did mitral valves. Although the large number of these Ionescu-Shiley valve failures has been a profound clinical disappointment, it has provided an opportunity to observe and detail the pathology of their failure.