Valvular heart disease (VHD) is characterized by damage to or a congenital defect in one or more heart valves: mitral, aortic, tricuspid, and pulmonary. Heart valves have a single function: to permit unobstructed forward blood flow through the heart. Damaged or defective valves can cause two types of problems: either they fail to open properly (a condition called stenosis) impeding blood flow, or they leak (a condition called regurgitation) permitting back flow. There are no effective long-term medical therapies for severe VHD.

Valve replacement or repair performed either surgically or by catheter intervention are the only effective therapies. 

As a routine practice, polyester suture material is used to fix the valves. After the valve replacement one of the problem which can occur is paravalvular leak. The causes include fibrosis or calcification of the annulus which fails to hold the sutures, rarely infections, improper suturing and undue stress on the suture lines. 

Immediate post-operative studies have identified minute suture leaks in 20% and hemodynamically significant leaks only in 1–5% of subjects.

In this study we plan to compare two commonly used brands of braided polyester sutures for fixation of the valvular prosthesis.

This study is designed to compare clinical equivalence of Trubond (Healthium) and Ethibond (Johnson & Johnson) braided polyester suture for fixation of the valvular prosthesis, using interrupted suture technique, in subjects undergoing Aortic or mitral valve replacement.