Between January 1989 to June 1999, 179 patients underwent mitral valve replacement with the St. Jude Medical (St. Jude Medical, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., USA) vale: 119 women (%66.48), and 60 men (%33.52), mean age 36 ± 14 years, at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery in 19 Mayıs University Medical School. In 76 patients, additional surgical interventions were performed. Hospital (early post-operative) mortality was 5.58%. Follow-up extended from 2 to 127 months (mean 58 months). All patients were anticoagulated with warfarin to maintain PT-INR value at 2.0 times control. There were 28 late deaths: 9 (32.1%) were evaluated valve-related: two thromboembolism, two valve thrombosis, two prosthetic valve endocarditis, one major hemorrhage, one paravalvular leak and a one sudden death. The 10 year actuarical patient survival was 78% ± 31.%. Actuarial freedom at 10 years from thromboembolic events was 84.8% ± 2.2%, anticoagulant-related hemorrhage was 89.3% ± 3.1%, valve thrombosis was 96.2% ± 1.3%, prosthetic valve endocarditis was 95.8% ± 1.8%, reoperation was 95.1% ± 1.8%, reoperation was 95.1% ± 2.6%. We think the good clinical results with an acceptable complication rate can be expected when the SJM valve prothesis used for cardiac valve replacement.

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