Heart Valve Replacement

My DH has two mechanical valves - an aortic in 1992 and a pulmonary in 2007. Both have been fine and caused no issues.

He takes warfarin and we have a great system going with the anti-coagulation clinic. He has his own self testing machine and tests his own blood (mostly every 4 weeks). We email the result to the clinic and they reply with his warfarin dose. It's so handy having our own testing machine as we can take it away with us, and if he's ill for an unrelated matter we can test to make sure he's in range (being under the weather can push the INR out of range).

which is the 'right' prosthesis is going to depend on things like age/which valve it is/ what the rest of their heart is like /lifestyle (which may affect the implications of lifelong anticoagulation)/other medical problems. If there is difference of opinion between the surgeons there should be proper MDT discussion (there should be anyway, but particularly important where it's a tricky decision).

My dad had a replacement valve 14 years ago and is still alive and hasn't had it replaced. I think he does take blood thinners. I'm not sure which one he had. I didn't hear of it being bovine.

My mum had a mechanical mitral valve replacement in 2000, and it lasted until she died in 2012. From talking to the cardiologist, the valve was doing its work fine - the problem was that she’d been on the waiting list so long (7 years back in the bad old days) that it had caused irreparable damage and so she lived with chronic heart failure. She ultimately died from renal failure because her heart wasn’t strong enough, and at 76 with multiple co-morbidities she wasn’t a good candidate for a transplant. The only thing we noticed about the mechanical valve was it clicking in a quiet room, and she regularly caused havoc at airport metal detectors (‘oh, didn‘t I tell you about my valve?’).

I had a bovine valve replacement over eight years ago and I’m doing fine although I have some unrelated issues.
In my case the decision on which kind of valve to go for was pretty much made when I was on the table although, of course, I asked the surgeon what he thought. He said that, because I was fairly compact, he might not be able to get a mechanical valve in the space and, also, because I was already being monitored for kidney problems, if I were on Warfarin, this would cause problems controlling bleeding if I were to end up on dialysis (which I have now been for almost five years).
Obviously these points may not apply to your DH but I wish him well!

No experience but this is in my future so following with interest.

Wishing and your family member all the best. 💐

Husband had bovine, he was young and active at the time so it lasted only ten years when he had a human one which lasted about 15. But both were amazing and his recovery was great