Severe late (16 years) dysfunction of a bioprosthesis in the mitral valve position without dysfunction of a bioprosthesis in the aortic valve position

Paul A. Grayburn, MD, Baron L. Hamman MD, and William C. Roberts, MD

A man who was born in 1939 underwent replacement of both mitral and aortic valves with porcine bioprostheses in 1987 (age 48). Thereafter, he was asymptomatic until 2003 (age 64), when he developed signs and symptoms of heart failure. This case demonstrates that when bioprostheses are placed in both mitral and aortic valve positions during the same operation, the bioprosthesis in the mitral valve tends to degenerate more rapidly than a similar bioprosthesis in the aortic valve.