Tissue heart valve and stent
First Claim
1. A stent for a tissue heart valve having tissue cusps and coaptation stitches, said stent for reducing stress in the tissue of the cusps comprising:
- a ring with scallops formed therein defining an aperture with inflow and outflow ends; and
a plurality of legs coupled to said ring and extending upwardly toward said outflow end each said leg dimensioned such that the radius of curvature of mobile tissue around and near the stent measured at the point of greatest curvature divided by the thickness of the tissue is greater than or equal to five at all points of contact between said tissue and said stent.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An improved stent for prosthetic tissue heart valves having upright legs which have radiused upper tips which are approximately one-half the width of prior art stent legs is disclosed. These narrow tipped stent legs reduce stress induced in the leaflets by curvature of the leaflets around the tips of the stent legs in the closed position, extending the service life of the valve. Tabs are added to the tips of the stent legs to add structural strength. These tabs can be tapered or straight but their bottom portions must be narrower than the stent leg. The tabs have a plurality of holes in them through which coaptation stitches are passed. The coaptation stitch can be two separate stitches, one in a first plane and one in a second plane at 90° to the first plane, or, in the preferred embodiment, a single figure eight stitch passing through the holes in the tab in a plane coincident with the long axis of the stent leg.
433 Citations
17 Claims
-
1. A stent for a tissue heart valve having tissue cusps and coaptation stitches, said stent for reducing stress in the tissue of the cusps comprising:
-
a ring with scallops formed therein defining an aperture with inflow and outflow ends; and a plurality of legs coupled to said ring and extending upwardly toward said outflow end each said leg dimensioned such that the radius of curvature of mobile tissue around and near the stent measured at the point of greatest curvature divided by the thickness of the tissue is greater than or equal to five at all points of contact between said tissue and said stent. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
-
-
5. A tissue prosthetic heart valve comprising:
-
(a) a stent comprising; (1) a ring with scallops formed therein defining an aperture with inflow and outflow ends; and (2) a plurality of legs coupled to said ring extending upwardly toward said outflow end, each said leg dimensioned such that the quotient of the radius of curvature of mobile tissue inside and around said stent measured at the point of greatest curvature divided by the thickness of said tissue is greater than or equal to five at all points of contact between said tissue and said stent; (b) a plurality of tissue leaflets attached to said stent and to each other to form a valving element; and (c) a plurality of coaptation means for causing joining of the edges of said tissue leaflets in the vicinity of the tips of said stent legs. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
Specification