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The first step to understanding valve failure: an overview of pathology
1Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
Abstract:
The most frequent valve-related complications are thromboembolic problems (including anticoagulant-related hemorrhage), infective endocarditis, paravalvular leak, intrinsic degradative dysfunction, and extrinsic interference with function, including tissue overgrowth. Tissue overgrowth, endocarditis, and paravalvular leak are largely prosthesis-independent. Thrombosis, the major cause of mechanical valve dysfunction, is infrequent with bioprostheses; in contrast, the overwhelming cause of bioprosthetic valve failure is primary tissue degeneration.