The five-year evaluation of a mechanical heart valve without anticoagulation in goats.

Two 5-year observations of goats with microporous surfaced Björk-Shiley Monostrut mitral heart valves without anticoagulation show the important point that one went through four the other two normal pregnancies with delivery of fourteen kids. Furthermore, the local findings on the valves suggest that the porous surface should be used only to invite a thin, endothelialized neointima over a preferably carbon-coated suture ring to continue over the groove and to the adjacent part of the valve flange. The vertical or central part of the ring and the struts, in the control material with a polished surface, have never been the origin of a thrombus and should therefore be polished.