A St. Jude Medical(SJM) Trifecta valve was developed as a new tissue valve by improving the previous tissue valve. The effective orifice area is wider than that of Epic tissue valve. The efficacy of the new valve has not been reported yet. Recently, we first performed aortic valve replacement(AVR) with the SJM Trifecta valve for aortic valve stenosis. A case 74-year-old female was admitted to our hospital with dyspnea and angina on exertion. She was diagnosed aortic valve stenosis. She underwent AVR with a 19 mm TrifectaTM tissue valve. According to the intra-operative direct simultaneous pressure measurement conducted after weaning of cardio pulmonary bypass, the peak pressure gradient of the prosthetic valve was 11 mmHg, the mean pressure gradient was 5 mmHg. According to the results of echocardiography conducted 10 days postoperatively, the peak pressure gradient of the prosthetic valve was 24.4 mmHg, the mean pressure gradient was 16.5 mmHg. She was discharged 18 days after surgery without complications. Implantation of a 19mm SJM TrifectaTM valve produced excellent result reflected by lower pressure gradient and absence of patient-prosthetic mismatch. In the future, the new valve is expected to be the optimum tissue valve for a narrow annulus.
