Clinical and functional evaluation of the Carbomedics Prosthetic Heart Valve in the mitral position. Preliminary results.

The Carbomedics Prosthetic Heart Valve is a new bileaflet pyrolite carbon prosthesis. This paper reports the preliminary results in 40 patients who underwent mitral valve replacement (MVR) using the Carbomedics Valve in 1988. The operative mortality rate was 5% and the early results have been encouraging, with no valve related complications observed in the first post-operative year.