Objective To investigate the hospital mortality of rheumatic heart disease (RHD)and major cause of death. Methods One hundred and thirty patients with RHD prepared to take valve replacement from January 2006 to November 2009 were involved in this study. They were divided into two groups according to all clinical data: death group (10 cases ) and survival group (120 cases ). The clinical data and complications were collected, and the hospital mortality and their causes were analyzed with Logistic regression analysis. Results Univariate analysis: total bilirubin and indirect bilirubin levels in death group [(30.31 ± 19.10), (22.38 ± 17.34) μmol/L] were significantly higher than those in survival group [(19.47 ± 8.61),(12.92 ± 7.30) μmol/L] (P ＜ 0.01). The incidence of postoperative complications,history of cerebral infarction and cardiovascular complications in death group were significantly higher than those in survival group (P ＜0.01). The Logistic regression analysis showed that the postoperative complications was an independent risk factor for hospital mortality (P =0.002). Conclusions RHD with postoperative complications is identified as an independent predictor of hospital mortality. It is very important to enhance the treatment and care during hospitalization.