"... here are your choices:The video provides a very real (and, yes, humorous) glimpse into the emotional and physical impact of aortic valve surgery as only Robin Williams can portray.
- pig valve, which is great, you can find truffles,
- mechanical valve, which clicks and you know, weird, (eds note: that also requires chronic anticoagulation)
- and bovine - great, 'I'll go bovine, Bob, for 20!'"
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigators and U.S. Marshals today seized all implantable medical devices from Shelhigh, Inc., Union, N.J., after finding significant deficiencies in the company's manufacturing processes. The deficiencies may compromise the safety and effectiveness of the products, particularly their sterility.See the entire FDA alert here. So much for their No-React® Tissue Detoxification process.
The products include pediatric heart valves and conduits (tube-like devices for blood flow), surgical patches, dural patches (to aid in tissue recovery after neurosurgery), annuloplasty rings (to help repair heart valves) and arterial grafts. The tissue-based devices are used in many surgical settings, including open heart surgery in adults, children and infants, and to repair soft tissue during neurosurgery and abdominal, pelvic and thoracic surgery. Critically ill patients, pediatric patients and immuno-compromised patients may be at greatest risk from the use of these devices.
The scientists first coaxed stem cells extracted from bone marrow to grow into heart valve cells by using chemical and physical nudges.I'm becoming a bit more skeptical for many of the reasons others have pointed out on a earlier post about growing vascularized heart cells by researchers in Israel.
Then, by placing these cells into scaffolds made of collagen, they grew small 3cm wide discs of heart valve tissue.
Later this year the tissue will be implanted into animals - probably sheep or pigs - and monitored to see how well it works as part of a circulatory system.
