Clinical behavior and evolution of prosthetic heart valve dysfunction. Five years experience.

Patients with cardiac valve replacement have a new illness, due to prosthesis complications, and the anticoagulant therapy. A prospective and observationalstudy was conducted, with 20 patients from Cienfuegos province with diagnosis of prosthetic valve dysfunction between years 2006-2010. Wecollected general data and clinical characteristics, the cause of the prosthetic dysfunction, the treatments, the results and the final evolution during hospitalperiod. Thrombosis was the main cause of prosthetic dysfunction. Thrombolytic treatment in terms of mortality and complications was efficient to resolvethe thrombotic obstruction.