A total and consecutive 87 patients underwent aortic valve replacement[AVR with the St. Jude Medical prosthesis between 1984 and 1993. Age ranged from 14 to 66 years[mean:38.6$pm$ 14.0 years .Twenty-one patients [24.1% had undergone previous valve replacement. There were 8 early deaths with an operative mortality rate of 9.2% [7.6% for primary AVR and 14.3 % for re-replacement AVR . Seventy-nine early survivors were,followed for a total of 309.1 patient-years[mean:3.9$pm$ 2.5 years . A late mortality rate was 5.1% [4 patients or a linearized incidence of 1.294 %/patient-year. All were anticoagulated with coumadin to maintain the international normal ized ratio[INR between 1.5 and 2.5. One patient experienced thromboembolism[0.324%/patient-year , and none did bleeding. Endocarditis occurred in one[0.324%/patient-year . Paravalvular leak was the most frequent complication and was experienced by 8 patients[2.588%/patient-year , and 5 of them required re-replacement AVR[1.618 %/patient year of reoperation rate . There was no structural failure of the prosthesis. Actuarial survival including operative death was 83.9%$pm$ 4.6% at 10 years.The actuarial estimates of freedom from thromboembolism and of freedom from late death and all complications were 95.1% $pm$ 4.8 % and 81.4% $pm$ 6.1%, respectively, at 10 years. These clinical results suggest that less intensive anticoagulation may be allowed for patients of AVR with the St. Jude Medical valve with low incidences of both thromboembolic and bleeding complications.