repeat AVR looming after only 6 years!

[normofthenorth]

I haven't gotten a definitive answer yet on which valve they have planned for me, but I think it's the ol' Hancock II, plus a separate Dacron aortic root. I'm not sure why they haven't switched to a stentless valve or the newer lower-profile improved-flow Hancock II Ultra and the like, but I'm gathering they haven't, at least in my case. It CAN'T be because they need more data for a specific study. . .

Speaking of studies, Lyn: That free full-text article you found is not only a "good catch" itself, it also seems to have a bunch of links (in the end-notes) to free full-text versions of other articles -- articles that I think I'd be charged for, if I did a normal search. Did you use some nifty form of searching, or do you "rate", or did you just get lucky, or what?

 

[Lynlw]

I haven't gotten a definitive answer yet on which valve they have planned for me, but I think it's the ol' Hancock II, plus a separate Dacron aortic root. I'm not sure why they haven't switched to a stentless valve or the newer lower-profile improved-flow Hancock II Ultra and the like, but I'm gathering they haven't, at least in my case. It CAN'T be because they need more data for a specific study. . .

Speaking of studies, Lyn: That free full-text article you found is not only a "good catch" itself, it also seems to have a bunch of links (in the end-notes) to free full-text versions of other articles -- articles that I think I'd be charged for, if I did a normal search. Did you use some nifty form of searching, or do you "rate", or did you just get lucky, or what?

The Ultra isn't available yet, its just undergoing trials in a few European countries so far. One good thing about the dacron grafts is usually they last pretty much forever (Unless your my son lol)
Honestly I'm not even sure how I sometimes end up at certain articles. When I read one that is interesting, I often search for the articles in the footnotes or other studies that cited that one or if it is on pubmed I look for the related articles. Sometimes pubmed will just have the abstract,not the fulltext or PDF, but says what publication it is from, so I search there. I usually use google.