[Current results of the aortic valve changes]

The prosthetic substitution of the aortic valve has experienced a great advance over the last years in relation with the surgical and hospital mortality. In the personal experience of one of the authors (F. López Soriano), the mortality rate was 0% in 40 patients in which an aortic valve change was performed, isolated or associated to other pathology. Between 1973 and 1978, 167 patients were operated at the "Instituto Nacional de Cardiología", with an early mortality of 11.3%; these results were superior to those previously published. The percentage of myocardic infarction following surgery was similar in both groups 8% less, than the 15% reported in other statistics. 25 patients of the total group needed second surgery due to prosthetic malfunction. A Starr Edward Model 2320 had been implanted on most patients, known for the high percentage of malfunction which is being discarted at present. Thromboembolic phenomena occurred in 9 patients (5.3%) from which five were located in the brain, none of them being fatal. The present results justify early surgery in moderately sinthomatic aortic valve disease, when comparing these results with the natural history of the disease and the evolution of said patients operated in later stages.