Heart Valve Replacement
The Heart Center of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center was one of the first centers in the country to offer a new "natural" heart valve replacement to patients with diseased or damaged aortic heart valves. The Freestyle® valve was tested extensively in six centers, including the Heart Center, before being released for general use. Developed by Medtronic, the Freestyle® is a pig valve designed to be closer to nature than some other options. More than 100 of our heart valve replacement patients received the Freestyle® valve during the five year clinical trial.
The heart valves are designed to control the direction of blood flow through the heart. The opening and closing of the heart valves produce the sound of the heartbeat. Heart valve replacement is used to repair or replace diseased heart valves.
Heart valve replacement surgery is open-heart surgery that is done while the patient is under general anesthesia. An incision is made through the breast bone (sternum). Tubes are used to re-route the blood away from the heart to a heart-lung bypass machine to keep the blood oxygenated and circulating while the heart is being operated on.
Replacement valves used in heart valve replacement surgery are either natural (biologic) or artificial (mechanical):
- Natural valves are from human donors (cadavers).
- Modified natural valves come from animal donors (porcine valves are from pigs, bovine are from cows) and are placed in synthetic rings.
- Artificial valves are made of metal.
Natural valves rarely require life-long medication to prevent blood clot formation (anticoagulation), whereas artificial valves will require anticoagulation.
Learn more about heart valve replacement and the Heart Center of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.