Over 190 patients who underwent open-heart surgery at four Irish hospitals since February 1998 have been recalled for check-ups. Some heart valves similar to ones they had implanted have been found to be faulty by international heart specialists, writes Eithne Donnellan.
The Silzone valve, one of four types of valve used in the State, has developed leakage in a very small number of patients worldwide.
The heart surgeon, Dr Maurice Neligan, said all 193 patients in Ireland who had the faulty valves implanted have been notified and some have had their check-ups.
He said there was no need for the thousands of people in the Republic who had undergone heart-valve replacement surgery at Cork University Hospital, or at Dublin's Blackrock Clinic, Mater Private Hospital or at the Mater Hospital's National Cardiac Unit to be concerned. If patients had not been called back for a check-up, they had no reason to worry.