Already get heart valves from pigs, so why not?

#1 | Posted by LegallyYourDead

That's not quite true, and I know as I have an artificial heart valve, although mine is 'bovine', not 'porcine'.

The artificial heart valves, which are generally aortic valves, are just that 'artificial'. They are what's known as a 'tissue valve' as opposed to a 'mechanical valve' which are generally used to replace mitral valves and requires open-heart surgery, whereas aortic valves can be replaced using what's called a 'TAVR' method, for 'Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement'. The valve is placed in the heart using a catheter, inserted through the artery in your groin. It's all done in just a few minutes, with only a small scar near your groin. The material used to make a 'tissue valve' has nothing to do with either a pig or a cows heart valve, but rather the material which makes up the pericardium, a sack around the heart of a pig or cow (they use material from either, in my case from a cow). The material which makes up the pericardium is some of the most durable material that you can find, and when harvested from a pig or a cow, is processed and then three pieces of the material, which makes-up the tri-cuspid valves, are hand-sewn into an expanded metal tube, which looks like a large 'stint', which is collapsed until it's inserted into the heart, through an artery and then expanded over the old damaged aortic valve. It was a simple procedure and the only reason I was in the hospital for five-days was because I needed a pacemaker, a common situation in about 25% of TAVR procedures, but they had problems getting the leads to stay in the heart muscles and so they had to implant them a second time after one of the leads came loose, which caused no end of 'excitement' at the time, and was an experience I would have just as well have wished had never happened (I know what it feels like when your heart stops for 15 seconds or so).

So getting back to your comment, while there are heart valves made from material harvested from pigs and cows, it not the actual heart valves themselves, but rather the pericardium, from which artificial 'tissue valves' are manufactured.

Being an engineer, when I was told that they were going to replace my faulty heart valve, I had to do some research to see how it was done and how the valves were manufactured. It's some pretty cool technology when you think about it. Note that my surgery was seven-years ago, and I'm doing fine, despite having problems with the pacemaker. I've had to have it reprogrammed twice in the last 18-months. I'll be getting a replacement in about three-years, when the battery wears out.

OCU