Study Population
The study population includes all patients who underwent AVR, either
isolated or with coronary artery bypass grafting, at the Queen Elizabeth
II Health Sciences Centre (QEII HSC, Halifax, NS, Canada) between 2011
and 2016, inclusively. Patient data was obtained from The Maritime Heart
Center Cardiac Surgery (MHC) Registry. The MHC is a detailed clinical
database that captures preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative
data from all patients undergoing cardiac surgery from 1995 to present
in Nova Scotia, Canada. This database was accessed to identify all
patients who had their native valve replaced with Perimount or Trifecta
valves in AVR, and who of those patients received reoperations for
prosthetic valve failure. Perimount, Perimount RSR, Perimount Magna, and
Perimount Magna Ease valves were combined into a single Perimount group.
Patients were included of any age, sex, and co-morbidity.