Closing click of St Jude Medical and Duromedics Edwards bileaflet valves: complaints created by valve noise and their relation to sound pressure and hearing level.

The metallic clicking sound created by mechanical heart valve prostheses frequently bothers patients. To test whether sounds generated by different bileaflet valves correlate to complaints related to the prosthetic clicking 73 patients were investigated after valve replacement with Duromedics Edwards (DE) (n = 38) and St Jude Medical (SJM) (n = 35) valves. The patients were asked about their complaints, sound pressure levels were recorded and audiometry was performed. Sixty-five percent of patients could hear their valve, 18% had sleeping disturbances, 5% felt bothered during daytime and 12% would prefer a less noisy valve. In symptomatic patients, sound pressure levels were higher than in asymptomatic patients (valve audible 45 +/- 8 db(A) vs not audible 39.9 +/- 10 db(A) at 10 cm; P = 0.016). These differences were most apparent in the high frequency bands, corresponding to the metallic click. Symptomatic patients had better hearing and were younger than patients without complaints. Fifty-one percent could hear their valve by conduction through the body, after eliminating air conduction by the use of headsets. The DE prostheses were louder than the SJM valves in general (47.4 +/- 7 vs 39.8 +/- 5 db (A) at 10 cm; P = 0.001) and in each valve position. Patients with DE prostheses had significantly more complaints. The intensity of the closing click of mechanical valves correlates to the complaints caused by prosthetic clicking and thus sound emission should be considered when a mechanical heart valve prosthesis is selected.