My friend is having 3 valves in her heart replaced with pig valves. Her dr said that putting in human valves raises the risk of her body rejecting them but wouldnt your body also reject a part form different species? And if they only last a few years why use them at all? shes all freaked out about the surgery so I dont want to ask her too many questions
We recently demonstrated a third possible replacement material: fresh porcine valves . Fresh porcine valves are immunologically privileged, as they do not express -Gal, the carbohydrate antigen that is responsible for the rejection of porcine hearts. Consequently, even when wild-type porcine hearts are destroyed by primate immunoglobulin M (IgM) and membrane attack complex (MAC) deposition within 60 minutes, the valves remain structurally pristine.
This Site Might Help You. RE: why do they use pigs heart valves for humans? My friend is having 3 valves in her heart replaced with pig valves. Her dr said that putting in human valves raises the risk of her body rejecting them but wouldnt your body also reject a part form different species? And if they only last a few years why use them at all? shes all freaked out...
Hello again. The valve I have implanted in me is porcine. Pig valves are sometimes used for a few reasons. First of all, they are much easier to get a hold of. Waiting for a human valve can take a long time. Secondly, there is less risk of rejection. These two reasons make a porcine valve better than having a human valve. You can also have metal valves, but when you have one or more of these you must take crazy medications for your entire life. With porcine valves, no extra medications are needed. So, porcine valves are really the best option. Like I said in a previous answer to one of your questions, I had my surgery when I was 16. I'm 22 now and doing alright. My valve is expected to last 10-15 years, so I expect to go under the knife to have it replaced when I'm 26-31. Unfortunately I have other issues and will have to have the surgery done earlier, and they'll probably change the valve while they're in there already. As far as I know, porcine valves last just as long as human valves. Whichever you have, it's going to clog up eventually anyways.
I'm not a cardiologist, but I suspect that pig heart valves are a lot easier to find and replace (if rejected) that human heart valves. Pigs are geneticaly very close to humans (go figure), till not long ago we were using porcine insulin for diabetics. The heart valve replacement is probably only temporary, meanwhile she might be put on the waiting list of heart transplant recepients. Once a matching human donor is found, she might be have to undergo a complet heart transplant. They dont replace only the human valves, they usualy replace the whole heart.
