Freeze-thaw technique keeps valves viable
"For the first time," reports William W. Angell, MD, "we have been able to preserve the viability of heart valves that are being frozen and stored for homograft valve replacement."
Dr. Angell and his colleagues described the freezing technique that may make long-term storage of tissue valves feasible at the 56th Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons in Chicago.
Dr. Angell is an assistant professor of surgery at Stanford University Medical School and co-author Wally Buch, MD, is a surgical resident. Bernard Mermet, MD, formerly a cardiovascular research fellow at Stanford, presented the paper at the Chicago meeting.
So far, the investigators have found that canine valves frozen for up to several weeks function as well or better than fresh homografts. They have also tested the freezing technique on human cadaver valves and are beginning to store them for future implantation.
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