The perfect prosthesis/patient match: pursuit of the Holy Grail

Abstract

the concept of valve prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPM), noting that "mismatch can be present when the postoperative prosthetic valve functioning opening is less than the patient's normal human valve opening" (2,3).Dr. Rahimtoola's remarks initiated the journey to design and build more effective prosthetic valves whose true functioning opening will match the patient's opening area and produce a dynamic in vivo effective orifice area (EOA) that matches the normal valve function of the patient. This article is a literature review that describes the journey in