Hi Josh, My son Justin is also 22. He's had a few OHS he has a few Congenital Heart Defects, but one of them is pulmonary stenosis so has a pulmonary valve and conduit he also has a Bovine (perimount) pulmonary valve. Actually he didn't have a pulmonary valve until he was 17, because they wanted to wait until he was fullgrown too.
BTW if you are searching for info on different pulmonary valves, they use Aortic valve, they don't make pulmonary valve (except as far as I know the contegra conduit, that is a pulmonary valve made from a cows jugular vein). Most of the people I know that have their pulmonary valve replaced have Bovine valves and a few have human. As John said, tissue valve usually last longer in the pulmonary position than they do the Aortic. Since they don't do many pulmonary valve replacements, like Deb suggested I would ask the different surgeons how many they've done. Are both surgeons you're talking to Congenital Heart Defect / Adults w/ CHD Surgeons? I haven't heard anything about Dr. Max Mitchell, but googled and saw he is at Denver childrens, so he should have pulm experience (most people who need pulm valves replaced have CHD) I can't think of anyone off the top of my head that I know goes to Denver, or Albuquerque. Which hospital do you go to there and who is your surgeon there?
I'm curious, how did you pick those 2 centers? I was looking to see what hospitals in NM do CHD surgery and was surprised when I found a link to a Dr. Lagerstrom that said "New Mexico's Only Pediatric Heart Surgeon
Presbyterian Heart Group has the only pediatric heart surgeon in the state and is the only hospital in New Mexico performing congenital open heart procedures"
http://www.phs.org/PHS/childrens/pediatric/index.htm
Which made me think of another good question to ask, beside asking the surgeon how many Pulmonary valves he does, I would ask how many CHD surgeries the hospital does each year. IMO, the experience the rest of the staff, and ICU has is almost as important as the surgeon, since many of the "bumps" happen when you are out of the OR and in ICU or on the regular floor.
You might also want to join the forums at the Adults with CHD org
http://achaheart.org/ Since quite a few of the members there also had pulmonary stenosis as part of their CHDs so have had 1 or more pulmonary valve replacements. I haven't been on their forums lately but there used to be a few people from the Denver Area, hopefully they can give you some thoughts about surgeons there.
Sorry this got long and rambly, I kept thinking of new things.