RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to analyze our 20-year clinical results with 413 GK-2 mechanical heart valves. METHODS: 123 men and 204 women with a mean age of 38.62 +/- 10.14 years accepted cardiac valve replacements. Ninety-one percent had NYHA class III or IV heart function. The mitral position was in 205 patients, aortic position in 31 patients, aortic and mitral in 86 patients, and tricuspid position in 5. Altogether 296 mitral prosthetic valves and 117 aortic prosthetic valves were implanted. Follow-up is 91% and extended 0.5 to 19.6 years with cumulative 2440.7 patient-years. RESULTS: The early mortality was 3.36% (11/327). There were 24 late deaths (0.98% per patient-year). The actuarial probability of survival was 93.31% +/- 0.03% at 5 years, 89.59 +/- 2.1% at 10 years, 83.61% +/- 6.09% at 15 years. The linearized rate of thromboembolism was 0.29% pt-yr, the rate of bleeding event 0.49% pt-yr. In 91.98% of survivors NYHA functional performance have improved to class II or I. CONCLUSION: Early and long-term results in our hospital demonstrate that the GK-2 prosthetic heart valve exhibits excellent hemodynamic properties, mechanical durability and a low incidence of valve-related complications.
