Medtronic Hall Easy-fit Valve

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J

JiminMI

Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2010
Messages
22
Location
MI, USA
This is the mechanical valve my surgeon was going to put in me last February, before I cancelled the surgery. From my online reading, it looks like the St. Jude's and On-X valves are currently the ones being used most often.

This Medtronic valve is of the "tilting disc" design. I'm wondering if this is a less favorable valve among surgeons today(?) Are there any members here who have this valve?
 
Sorry I do not know anything about Medtronic, but I am sure you shall receive some good answers from other members who have more knowledge.

Just curious to know the reasons your surgeon recommended/preferred Medtronic to other valves, if you ever asked him!

Good luck with your choice. This is the most torturing decision I had to make before my surgery.
 
Eva: I don't know why he was going to use the Medtronics . . .was one of the reasons I cancelled surgery along with my still huge reservations about having the operation done at that time. I had an office conference with the surgeon later and asked him about other valves. He said he didn't use the On-X (my preference) but that he could use a St. Jude's. BTW, the Bentall procedure was recommended for me which involves a conduit with aortic valve.

Online sources have said that the SJ had better hemodynamics but was also more susceptible to backflow and on rare occasion (I would hope), can get a stuck leaflet. I just hope the doctor's reason for using the Medtronic in me wasn't because he had a bunch of older valves he wanted to get rid of!
 
I don't think it's the surgeons who stock the valves -- my impression when I had my surgery was that the hospital has a supply of valves, from which the size (and manufacturer, if one seems better suited than another) could be selected during the surgery. I doubt that there will be 'overstock' issues, or discounts because a doctor or hospital has more of one type than they do of another.

I have a St. Jude. When I had my surgery, I think the only choices were St. Jude or tissue -- at my age when I had the surgery, there really was no choice.

Did you ask your surgeon why he preferrred the Medtronic?
 
I am not familiar with the specific valve you mention, but I received a Medtronics Freestyle in my surgery (I had a Bentall's Procedure -- combined root and valve replacement). The surgeon left the choice to me but was complimentary of the choice I made after research. This is not a particularly "old" style of valve -- in fact, it is relatively new, and has the anti-calcification treatment. I am pleased with it so far.
 
I thought tilting disk valves were only used now in third world countries, these are pre 1977 technology.
Tilting disk valves are a robust design but very much old technology.
They have been superseded by bi-leaflet valves that have superior blood flow and a lower propensity for clot formation.
If I was receiving a mechanical valve I certainly wouldn't want one of these tilting disk valves, and I would feel relieved that I followed my hunch and postponed surgery until I did more investigation.
I would be dubious about even using a surgeon that wanted to implant one of these valves in 2010.
The most commonly used mechanical valves today are St Jude, ON-X, ATS and Carbomedics.
 
Last edited:
Check out this link (found by Google Search)
http://www.medtronic.com/your-healt...ucts/hall-easy-fit-mechanical-valve/index.htm

The only Medtronic-Hall Tilting Disk Valve that I am familiar with is fairly old and not used very often anymore to the best of my (non-professional) knowledge.

'AL Capshaw'

EDIT -


Here is my post from 2009 "St Jude" Thread listing the overall 'event rates' for the Major Mechanical Valve Manufacturers. We have members who have valves from all 4 manufacturers who are doing well while properly anticoagulated.

The manufacturers argue all argue about certain design features of their valves. Personally, I'm impressed with the advancements offered by the On-X valve which was designed to lower the already low 'event rates' of mechanical valves. To my (engineering / non-medical-professional) mind, the BIG difference comes at those times when it is necessary to go OFF anti-coagulation for invasive procedures.

QUOTE

A few years ago, On-X sent me an 'Information Package' which included a pair of tables entitled "Morbid Event Rates Comparison" for both the Aortic and Mitral positions with footnotes indicating the source of the data for each company which included PMA (something about Safety and Effectiveness) Summaries (ATS and CMI) and FDA submissions.

The combined rates in (% per pt-year) for Thromboembolism, Thrombosis, and Hemorrhage for the

Aortic Position were

On-X = 2.14 % per pt-year
SJM = 3.90 St. Jude Medical
CMI = 2.96 Carbomedics
ATS = 4.04 ATS
MH = 2.50 Medtronic Hall (I believe that is a single leaflet valve)

Mitral Position

On-X = 1.86 % per pt-year
SJM = 3.34
CMI = 4.44
ATS = 5.07
MH = 4.30

I left off the breakdowns by categories because I'm not about to sit here and re-type all that data. Note that other factors such as Hemolysis (blood cell damage) and Pannus Tissue Growth are not included in the above statistics.

The complete charts are available to ANYONE who asks for them. Just call or e-mail On-X and they will send you whatever information you request. Contact information is on their website www.onxvalves.com or 888-339-8000.

They have recently published another set of Bar Graphs which also include several tissue valves (which I find a little hard to interpret - too much information in too little space... give me the numbers in a spread sheet format please).

'AL Capshaw'

END QUOTE
 
Superbob said:
I am not familiar with the specific valve you mention, but I received a Medtronics Freestyle in my surgery (I had a Bentall's Procedure -- combined root and valve replacement). The surgeon left the choice to me but was complimentary of the choice I made after research. This is not a particularly "old" style of valve -- in fact, it is relatively new, and has the anti-calcification treatment. I am pleased with it so far.
Click to expand...

They recommended the Bentall for me also with a mechanical valve.

I met the chief surgeon for the first time in the hospital after my heart-cath; he basically told me he would go with the mechanical valve. They had scheduled me for surgery two days later without asking me. I had only gone there for the heart-cath, thinking it was just another diagnostic procedure on the road to making my decision about having surgery---they evidently thought they would make that for me. So I rescheduled that surgery for the following week, then went home and thought about it, and decided I needed a lot more information about my options and also wanted a second opinion . . .I then called and cancelled that surgery. I must say that the surgeon didn't seem too open to discussing valve options at the time, and displayed a rather condescending attitude towards some of my questions while at the hospital.

After I had done much more online research at home, I met with the surgeon again in his office. I think he was getting a bit impatient with me by this time after my rescheduling and cancellation of surgery, but he did answer all my questions about the different valves, surgical techniques, Coumadin therapy, pumphead syndrome, etc. I told him that I was going to get a second opinion before making any more decisions about surgery. I then thanked him for his time and left his office---that was last March.

So right now, I'm still trying to decide where to have my surgery. There's one surgeon who does the On-X in my state; frankly I wasn't overly impressed with his credentials as to experience, educational institutions, or his affiliated hospital, which didn't rank that high on the "Healthgrades" website.

If I was receiving a mechanical valve I certainly wouldn't want one of these tilting disk valves, and I would feel relieved that I followed my hunch and postponed surgery until I did more investigation.
I would be dubious about even using a surgeon that wanted to implant one of these valves in 2010.
Click to expand...

That's how I felt too, Emu.
 
I think Al Capshaw, who is knowledgeable about the On-X, would agree that you ought to find a surgeon with solid experience with that device if that is your choice. Of course that goes as well for any type of valve. I was very appreciative of my surgeon laying out the options available to me and leaving the choice to me. Sounds like you have done your homework. Hopefully some folks here might have suggestions of excellent surgeons in your part of the country.
 
The combined rates in (% per pt-year) for Thromboembolism, Thrombosis, and Hemorrhage for the

Aortic Position were

On-X = 2.14 % per pt-year
SJM = 3.90 St. Jude Medical
CMI = 2.96 Carbomedics
ATS = 4.04 ATS
MH = 2.50 Medtronic Hall (I believe that is a single leaflet valve)
Click to expand...

I've seen this before . . .looks like the Medtronic didn't do too badly in this study for the aortic position . . .interesting!
 
Jim,

You did the right thing by cancelling your surgery. My surgeon was willing to operate within ten days after my meeting with him. I was not ready and I apologized and I saw two other surgeons in two other hospitals before I made a decision. Luckily, they all were gracious and patient and answered all my questions, including their preferences to one valve or the other. [I received three different recommendations which made it much harder on me].

This is your health and you have all the right to take your time and seek more opinions until you reach a decision and feel comfortable with it.


Ask your friends and family doctors for some suggestions and then do your own research.

Good luck and keep us posted :)
 
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