Minimally-invasive heart valves with wireforms
First Claim
1. A minimally-invasive heart valve for implantation at a host heart valve annulus, comprising:
- a collapsible and expandable heart valve stent adapted to be delivered in a collapsed state to the heart valve annulus and expanded in position at the annulus, the stent defining a plurality of upstanding commissures and a plurality of arcuate cusps, each cusp extending between adjacent commissures; and
a plurality of prosthetic leaflets attached to the stent, each leaflet having an approximately semi-circular cusp edge terminating at each end in commissure portions and a coapting edge extending between the commissure portions, each leaflet being attached substantially entirely along its cusp edge to one of the stent cusps and each leaflet being attached at its commissure portions to adjacent stent commissures with the coapting edge remaining unattached.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Expandable heart valves for minimally invasive valve replacement surgeries are disclosed. In a first embodiment, an expandable pre-assembled heart valve includes a plastically-expandable annular base having plurality of upstanding commissure posts. A tubular flexible member including a prosthetic section and a fabric section is provided, with the prosthetic section being connected to the commissure posts and defining leaflets therebetween, and the fabric section being attached to the annular base. In a second embodiment, an expandable heart valve includes an annular tissue-engaging base and a subassembly having an elastic wireform and a plurality of leaflets connected thereto. The annular base and subassembly are separately stored and connected just prior to delivery to the host annulus. Preferably, the leaflet subassembly is stored in its relaxed configuration to avoid deformation of the leaflets. The expandable heart valves maybe implanted using a balloon catheter. Preferably, the leaflets of the heart valves are secured to the commissure regions of the expandable stents using a clamping arrangement to reduce stress.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A minimally-invasive heart valve for implantation at a host heart valve annulus, comprising:
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a collapsible and expandable heart valve stent adapted to be delivered in a collapsed state to the heart valve annulus and expanded in position at the annulus, the stent defining a plurality of upstanding commissures and a plurality of arcuate cusps, each cusp extending between adjacent commissures; and
a plurality of prosthetic leaflets attached to the stent, each leaflet having an approximately semi-circular cusp edge terminating at each end in commissure portions and a coapting edge extending between the commissure portions, each leaflet being attached substantially entirely along its cusp edge to one of the stent cusps and each leaflet being attached at its commissure portions to adjacent stent commissures with the coapting edge remaining unattached. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An expandable prosthetic heart valve for placement in a host heart valve annulus, comprising:
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a collapsible and expandable stent system adapted to be delivered in a collapsed state to an implantation site and expanded, the stent system including an expandable generally annular tissue-engaging base and an elastic generally annular wireform attached to the base, the wireform defining a plurality of upstanding commissures and a plurality of arcuate cusps, each cusp extending between adjacent commissures; and
a plurality of prosthetic leaflets attached to the wireform in a manner that provides continuous support for each leaflet along the wireform cusps. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification