Pathology of aortic valve replacement.

The autopsy findings in 41 patients with University of Cape Town aortic valve prostheses were studied. Twenty patients died within 1 month of operation and 21 patients died later, up to 141 months after operation. The most important postoperative complications which were common to both groups of patients were arrhythmias, myocardial failure and infection. Systemic embolism was the most important late complication. The type of coronary arterial perfusion or ventricular rhythm during bypass did not influence the myocardial pathology. Patients who died of myocardial failure did not show more severe myocardial alterations than did those who died of other causes.