Pulmonary Valve Replacement: A New Paradigm with Tissue Engineering.

Prevalence of congenital heart diseases worldwide is around 9 per 1000 newborns, 20% of which affect the pulmonary valve or right ventricular outflow tract. As survival after surgical repair of these defects has improved over time, there is the need to address the long-term issues of older children and young adults with "repaired" congenital heart diseases. In recent decades, the most used types of valves are the mechanical and bioprosthetic valves. Despite improving patients' quality of life, these effects are suboptimal due to their limitations, such as the inability to grow and adapt to hemodynamic changes. These issues have led to the search for living valve solutions through tissue engineering to respond to these challenges. This article aims to review the performance of traditional pulmonary valves and understand how tissue engineering-based valves can improve the management of these patients.

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