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Cardiac Reconstructive Surgery
In 1984, CryoLife advanced cardiovascular medicine when it introduced and made commercially available cryopreserved human heart valves, providing cardiovascular surgeons with new, important and viable cardiac repair alternatives. The main advantage these human valves had was that they had the same functionality as a normal heart valve. Up until this time, the majority of replacement heart valves available were either porcine tissue, which tended to calcify and become obstructed, or mechanical valves that required a lifetime of anticoagulant drugs.
CryoLife's proprietary preservation process made possible a human heart valve replacement that literally eliminated the need for anticoagulant drugs and the concern of calcification that might cause early removal of a replacement heart valve. As a result, the cryopreserved human heart valve rapidly became the heart valve of choice in treating young active adults, women of childbearing age, and children under the age of 15. Since its inception, CryoLife has preserved over 44,000 heart valves, and almost 50 percent have been implanted in children. CryoLife cryopreserved valves have saved the lives of tens of thousands of children and allowed them to lead normal lives. In cooperation with a national network of tissue banks and organ procurement organizations, CryoLife cryopreserves human aortic and pulmonary valves, providing cardiovascular surgeons with two major replacement valve alternatives. Today, there are nearly 1,000 surgeons, at over 800 medical centers in the United States that routinely transplant CryoLife preserved human heart valves. For more information regarding cardiac reconstructive surgery visit:
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