Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The choice of an artificial mitral valve (MV) is a crucial clinical decision that affects the long-term survival and quality of life of patients. However, current guidelines recommend selecting MV based on patient age and life expectancy at the time of mitral valve replacement (MVR), without considering the etiology of MV disease. This study aimed to investigate whether MV disease etiology should be considered when choosing a valve for MVR and to evaluate the impact of MV disease etiology on long-term patient survival. METHODS: Using data (2002-2018) from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database, the authors conducted a nationwide retrospective cohort study to compare the biological and mechanical valves in terms of all-cause mortality as the primary outcome. The inverse probability of the treatment weighting method was used to reduce the effects of the confounding factors. The following etiologies were assessed: infective endocarditis, rheumatic heart disease, ischemic mitral regurgitation, and degenerative mitral regurgitation. RESULTS: In patients aged below 70 years, it was observed that mechanical valves demonstrated an association with benefits compared to biological valves in the context of survival. In patients with infective endocarditis aged below 72 years, mechanical valves were associated with survival benefits, but not in those with stroke during hospitalization. These valves were also found to be linked with survival advantages for patients with rheumatic heart disease aged below 60 years and for those with degenerative mitral regurgitation aged below 72 years. However, no age-dependent effects of valve type on all-cause mortality were observed in patients with ischemic mitral regurgitation. CONCLUSION: The etiology of MV disease appears to be important in the selection of a suitable MV and determination of a cutoff age for mechanical and biological MVR.