Df. Del Rizzo et A. Abdoh, Clinical and hemodynamic comparison of the Medtronic Freestyle and TorontoSPV stentless valves, J CARDIAC S, 13(5), 1998, pp. 398-407
The excellent hemodynamics of stentless valves have been observed by numero
us investigators. With the recent release of the Toronto SPV (stentless por
cine valve) and the Medtronic Freestyle stentless valves in North America,
it is appropriate to now compare the clinical and hemodynamic performance o
f these devices. We analyzed the results of 995 patients who underwent aort
ic valve replacement (AVR) with either of the two valves; in all cases a su
bcoronary implant technique was used. There were important differences in t
he preoperative characteristics for the two groups: Medtronic Freestyle pat
ients were notably older than the Toronto SPV patients (70.7 +/- 8.6 vs 61.
8 +/- 11.1 years, p < 0.001) and were markedly more symptomatic (p < 0.0001
). In the Toronto SPV group, most patients had New York Heart Association (
NYHA) Class II (41.5%) or Class III (44.7%) symptoms preoperatively, while
in the Freestyle group, 61.5% were in Class III and 12.5% were in Class IV.
There were no notable differences in mortality or morbidity for the two gr
oups. Both devices demonstrated a meaningful decrease in mean gradient and
a corresponding increase in effective orifice area (EOA). Furthermore, the
indexed EOA (EOA/body surface area [BSA]) was > 1cm(2)/m(2) for all valves
indicating there was no patient-prosthetic mismatch. There was a meaningful
decrease in left ventricular (LV) mass as well as LV mass index (LVMI) for
both devices up to 3 years postoperatively. Our data indicate that there w
ere no differences in clinical outcome or hemodynamic performance of these
two valves. Both devices offer excellent results with normalization of LV f
unction.