A total and consecutive 163 patients underwent cardiac valve replacement using the Hancock porcine xenograft cardiac valves from 1 976 to 1984. Of 198 substitute valves, 177 were the Hancock valves. One hundred twenty-nine patients[79.1%] had single valve replacement: MVR 118, AVR 8 and TVR 3; 33[20.3%] had double valve replacement: MVR+AVR 27 and MVR+TVR 6; and a single case had triple valve replacement. Other surgical procedures were added in 34 patients. The operative mortality rate within 30 days of surgery was 6.1%, and it was, however, 4.2%, with single MVR. Late mortality rate was 6.7% or 1.95%/patient-year of a linealized mortality rate. Early survivors of 153 patients were followed up for a total of 565.1 patient-years [a mean of 44.3*27.1 months]. The linealized annual complication rates were: 1.95% emboli/patient-year, 0.89% bleeding/patient-year 1.24% endocarditis/patient-year, and 4.25% overall failure/patient-year. Primary tissue failure occurred at a rate of 1.59%/patient-year. The actuarial survival rates including operative mortality were 87.0*4.1% and 77.3*6.6% at 5 and 11 years after surgery respectively. The probability of freedom from thromboembolic complication of 89.2*3.4% at 5 years after surgery lasted unchanged upto 11 years. The probability of freedom from overall valve failure was 81.3*4.5% at postoperative 5 years, and it dropped down to 26.2*19.4% at 11 years, although the latter was statistically insignificant because of a small number of patients entering into the years approaching the follow-up end. However, the probability of freedom from the primary tissue failure was 81.3*10.6% at postoperative 9 years, which coincides closely with the speculated rate of tissue degeneration of about 20% in 10 years. These clinical results confirm the low thrombogenicity of the Hancock porcine valve and the reasonable failure rate of tissue degeneration.