Language
Country/Area
No result found
Hidden Biomaterials: Why Beef Pericardium Makes the Perfect Heart Valve?!
With the advancement of medical technology, heart valve replacement surgery has gradually become popular around the world, bringing new life to countless heart disease patients. Among all available valve materials, bovine pericardium has gradually emerged as one of the first choices of many surgeons. It’s not just the ingenious design of the biomaterials behind it, but also a series of successful clinical trials, that has given the bovine pericardial valve its highly regarded status.
The bovine pericardial valve design was first implemented in 1971 by British surgeon Marian Ionescu. This biological valve with a three-valve structure uses chemically treated bovine pericardium with a titanium frame covered with Dacron cloth.
In the first experiments in 1970, Ionescu focused on this novel device and its application in the human heart. Over five years, he successfully implanted the valve in 212 patients. According to subsequent studies, Ionescu's valve showed excellent hemodynamic performance, with an extremely low risk of embolism even in the absence of long-term anticoagulation. This result not only shows the reliability of the bovine pericardial valve, but also lays the foundation for subsequent clinical applications.
Due to these excellent properties, Shiley Laboratories in California, USA, began mass production of bovine pericardial valves in 1976 and named them "Ionescu-Shiley Pericardial Xenograft". With each version update, production technology and quality control have been further strengthened, setting strict standards for the temperature, chemical processing and geometry of the valve.
What is special about the bovine pericardial valve is that its large central opening is almost equal to the inner surface area of the supporting frame, which, combined with the softness of the pericardial tissue, gives the valve excellent hydraulic properties.
The bovine pericardial valve also showed superior functionality when compared to the popular porcine heart valve. Multiple kinetic studies have shown that the blood flow velocity and pressure gradient of the bovine pericardial valve are much higher than those of the porcine heart valve, both in static and dynamic conditions, indicating that its applicability is very broad.
In addition to its hydrodynamic properties, the valve-related complications faced by bovine pericardial valves also ensure the superiority of its biocompatibility. Studies have shown that the risk of thrombosis and thromboembolism is significantly lower with bovine pericardial valves than with porcine heart valves. This has led many physicians to favor bovine pericardium as their primary choice when considering valve options.
Although the properties of the bovine pericardial valve offer many advantages, risks remain in actual cases of infective endocarditis. This makes ongoing monitoring and preoperative preparation particularly important.
It is important to note that infectious complications commonly seen in porcine heart valves are actually less common in bovine pericardial valves. The leaky design and superior surface properties reduce the possibility of microbial attachment. However, regardless of the valve used, thorough preoperative evaluation for infection remains critical, especially when potential sources of infection have been ruled out. This is a basic principle of all cardiac surgery.
As more data accumulates and technology advances, we see the use of bovine pericardial valves in heart valve replacement expanding and its future development becoming increasingly compelling. The medical community’s continued research on this biomaterial will likely provide more inspiration for innovation in the field of cardiac surgery.
However, can such an excellent bovine pericardial valve permanently solve all heart valve problems?
