My valve is the best valve in the world, all the other valves are for little girls!

Actually, I do think my valve is the best one for me, but that isn't quite the point of this post, although it does play a big role. If you have done any type of lurking/research/joined a forum, you tend to run into a couple of issues. Well, I call them problems, but lets be all PC and call them "issues". One of the major ones would be the fact that most valve performance information, graphs, comparisons, etc, showing how good each individual valve is, is found on the website for the manufacturer of the valve that you are researching. Not to say the information isn't good, but it would be shocking if the information presented isn't done in such a way as to make that particular valve look the best. Take my valve, the ON-X valve. Tons of great information, very impressive features, however, none of it is presented independently. Probably a little bias there, but who would blame them really; it is their valve after all. Same goes for ATS, St. Jude, and whoever else makes the little buggers. Then you have all the tissue valves, and their sites with impressive patient testimonials, so you can see where the confusion in picking a valve would lie. You want a cow valve? Right-mouse-click-link-cow is the awesomest! Uh-oh. So let's head to the forums! Surely we can get unbiased information there.

Well, kind of. We're going to run into a few "issues" here as well. One being that whoever is promoting the benefits of a particular valve, probably has the thing implanted into his or her chest and given the trauma of surgery, the uphill of recovery, and the time, mental, and emotional investment put into rehabbing, is probably going to be something of a booster for whatever piece of metal, carbon, or animal they had sewn in. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, if they are doing well, and happy with their valve, that is all plusses for that particular valve. But hey, it's not exactly unbiased performance information. Then you have all the mechanical versus tissue nonsense, where, if you lurk for long enough, you'll see the mechanical people having issues with people getting tissue and maybe facing a re-operation down the road, and the tissue people wondering why the hell anyone would willingly be on rat-poison aka coumadin the rest of their life.

What about our surgeons then? Well, this is a little tricky too; some hospitals have agreements with certain manufacturers to use their product as a "product of choice". Doesn't mean a surgeon can't use anything else they want, but c'mon, you get the idea. Many surgeons have preferences for certain valves as well; which ones and for what reasons may not always be totally clear; maybe Surgeon X received great sales rep support with Valve A, while Surgeon Y likes Valve B just because that's what he/she is used to. Not that all surgeons are that way for sure, but interview enough surgeons about their valve preferences and you'll quickly find that there are definite preferences out there. Some patients don't even get a choice. That isn't always a bad thing, but doesn't mean it was explained to the patient ahead of time why that particular valve was chosen for them. 

So how do you choose a valve? How can I make sure it's the best? The honest answer is, there is no one "best" valve that will cover every patient out there, so get that out of your head right now. You really want tissue? Then tissue is probably going to be the best for you. You are convinced mechanical is the best, then, my friend, that is the valve you should probably get. 

For the rest of you, check back soon, as I'll be putting up why I chose my particular valves (tissue first, then mechanical second) and how I arrived at each decision. Trust me, it is not exactly an exact science.