A Prospective Randomized Evaluation of Mechanical Versus Biological Valves in Patients Ages 55 to 70 Years

One hundred fifty-five patients received a BP valve, and 155 patients received an MP valve. Four patients died,perioperatively, in the MP group (2.6%), and 6 patients died in the BP group (3.9%, p 0.4). At late follow-up(mean 106 28 months) 41 patients died in the MP group and 45 patients died in the BP group (p 0.6).There was no difference in the survival rate at 13 years between the MP and BP groups. Valve failures and reop-erations were more frequent in the BP group compared with the MP group (p 0.0001 and p 0.0003, re-spectively). There were no differences in the linearized rate of thromboembolism, bleeding, endocarditis, andmajor adverse prosthesis-related events (MAPE) between the MP and BP valve groups.