Medical Therapy versus Surgical Therapy in Patients with Prosthetic Valve Dysfunction

In this study, the results of medical therapy and surgical therapy were compared in patients with prosthetic valve dysfunction referring to a training hospital between 2001 and 2011. In this case-series study, 40 patients with prosthetic valve dysfunction referring to a training hospital between 2001 and 2011 were enrolled. Thirty-one subjects had left-side involvement and 9 subjects had right-sided disease. In each group, some subjects received medical therapy and some were treated with surgery and the results and side effects were compared between the two groups. In this study, all confounding factors in the two groups were matched (p value < 0.05). There were no significant differences as regards clinical symptoms, echocardiographic findings, and side effects between the two groups (p value > 0.05). It may be concluded that both medical therapy and surgical therapy are almost equally effective in the treatment of prosthetic valve dysfunction.