The first bileaflet valves were introduced in 1978. The bileaflet valve is one of the most impactful biomedical discoveries of the past 30 years. One of the main reasons why bileaflet valves were developed was to prevent calcification that was prevalent in the previous mechanical valves. Calcification occurs when calcium deposits stick to the valve flaps which hinders the movement of the valve and the ability to allow fluid to move back in the atrium or ventricle that it originally came from. The structure of the bileaflet heart valve is fairly simple. It is composed of a suture ring that attaches to heart tissue after the hold valve is removed. There are two leaflets that attach to the outer circle and move through their pivots. Both the circle and leaflets are made up of carbon as well as tungsten which is used in the leaflets. The bileaflet works simply by using two semicircle panels that turn on the pivots to open and close the valve. When the bileaflet valve opens the blood flows through in three sections. This means that the velocity of the blood flowing into the other chamber will be different depending on which part of the heart valve the blood originally comes through. The blood comes in at a rate of 2.2 …show more content…
Because of this the blood goes in through three different streams and then later meets up, which causes stress for the heart. A lot of stress on an already weak heart can cause major damage and possibly kill the patient. The heart can only withstand a certain amount of velocity of blood or else it will deteriorate the tissue causing the heart to start losing its function. The tissue of the left ventricle is very thick which allows it to take the pressure of the blood and to push blood to the rest of the body, but the right ventricle is not made to withstand high pressure or high velocity, meaning that problems would