Clinical results of valve replacement by the Starr-Edwards prosthesis

Heart valve replacement has initiated special research efforts and has led to debate among surgeons from different surgical services. It is in this area of cardiac surgery that complications are frequent. This paper is a summarized review of the problems related to valve replacement by the Starr-Edwards prosthesis at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School Heart Institute. It describes the difficulties which led the authors to abandon its use in 1971. Clinical experience is from July 1958 to January 1974.