Artificial heart valve
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An artificial heart valve, adapted for replacement of a heart valve of at least one of a human and an artificial heart, comprising:
- means for securing the heart valve to a selected portion of the heart, said heart valve securing means including an orifice ring having an inlet aperture, an outlet aperture, a generally cylindrical channel operatively coupling said inlet aperture and said outlet aperture for defining an occludable space, said channel having a central longitudinal axis therethrough;
stator means including a plurality of stator blades operatively secured within said channel and secured against rotation therein;
rotor means including a plurality of rotor blades operatively disposed within said channel, said rotor blades being axially rotatable about said longitudinal axis and moveable in translation along said longitudingl axis, for substantially occluding and unoccluding said space in response to respective backward and forward differential blood pressures across said rotor means; and
said stator means and said rotor means being substantially retained within said channel and said rotor blades being restrained from penetrating the plane of said inlet aperture and said outlet aperture in any of said occluded and said unoccluded positions, for providing a low profile valve, the rotation of said rotor means for occluding and unoccluding said space being substantially symmetrical about said longitudinal axis and about at least one axis in a plane normal to said longitudinal axis, said rotor means undergoing equal and opposite angular rotor displacements in the occluding and unoccluding rotational directions, respectively.
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Abstract
An artificial heart valve of turbine-like construction includes a rotor that translates and rotates to cause a plurality of rotor blades to either occlude or unocclude spaces between adjacent ones of a plurality of stator blades.
72 Citations
31 Claims
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1. An artificial heart valve, adapted for replacement of a heart valve of at least one of a human and an artificial heart, comprising:
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means for securing the heart valve to a selected portion of the heart, said heart valve securing means including an orifice ring having an inlet aperture, an outlet aperture, a generally cylindrical channel operatively coupling said inlet aperture and said outlet aperture for defining an occludable space, said channel having a central longitudinal axis therethrough; stator means including a plurality of stator blades operatively secured within said channel and secured against rotation therein; rotor means including a plurality of rotor blades operatively disposed within said channel, said rotor blades being axially rotatable about said longitudinal axis and moveable in translation along said longitudingl axis, for substantially occluding and unoccluding said space in response to respective backward and forward differential blood pressures across said rotor means; and said stator means and said rotor means being substantially retained within said channel and said rotor blades being restrained from penetrating the plane of said inlet aperture and said outlet aperture in any of said occluded and said unoccluded positions, for providing a low profile valve, the rotation of said rotor means for occluding and unoccluding said space being substantially symmetrical about said longitudinal axis and about at least one axis in a plane normal to said longitudinal axis, said rotor means undergoing equal and opposite angular rotor displacements in the occluding and unoccluding rotational directions, respectively. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An artificial heart valve adapted for replacement of a human heart valve, comprising:
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stator means for providing an occludable space about an axis; rotor means rotatable about and translatable along said axis for substantially occluding and unoccluding said space in response to respective backward and forward differential blood pressures across said rotor means; said stator means further including a generally rigid annular orifice ring, said orifice ring being operably disposed in axial alignment with said axis; said stator means including a plurality of stator blades, each of said stator blades being in the general shape of a turbine blade, the distal end of at least one of said stator blades being fixedly connected to the inner annular surface of said orifice ring; and said stator blades being equally spaced about said axis, a top projected view of the space between adjacent ones of said stator blades being substantially the same as the top projected view of said stator blades, a side projected view of said space, taken in the plane along the centerline of said space, being substantially the same as the side projected view of a stator blade taken in a plane along its centerline. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. A heart valve adapted for replacement of a human heart valve comprising:
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stator means for providing an occludable space about a longitudinal axis; rotor means axially rotatable about and moveable in translation along said longitudinal axis for substantially occluding and unoccluding said space in response to respective backward and forward differential blood pressures across said rotor means; said rotor means further including an annular rotor hub; and a plurality of rotor blades, each in the general shape of a turbine blade, the proximal ends of said rotor blades being connected to said rotor hub. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A valve for at least one of a human and an artificial heart, comprising:
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means for providing an occludable space about a central axis; and an axially rotatable occluder means for substantially occluding and unoccluding said space in response to respective backward and forward differential blood pressures across said occluder means; and said occluder means being moveable with respect to said space-providing means, said occluder means being substantially symmetrical with respect to said space-providing means at least along said axis, the angular rotation of said occluder means with respect to said space-providing means being relatively independent of the magnitude of the blood flow rate through the occludable space but being controlled by said occluder means to insure equal and opposite angular rotation thereof in both occluding and unoccluding directions.
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25. An artificial heart valve having a suture ring connected to the periphery of an orifice ring, comprising:
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a plurality of stator blades, each in the general shape of a turbine blade, the distal end of at least one of said stator blades being connected to said orifice ring with equal spaces between adjacent stator blades; a stator hub coaxially disposed relative to said orifice ring, said stator hub being connected to the proximal ends of said stator blades; a post, having a top section in the shape of a right truncated cone and a bottom section in the shape of a cylinder, ends of said bottom section being coaxially connected to said top section and said stator hub, respectively; a key connected to said bottom section; a generally annular rotor hub having a keyway that receives said key; a plurality of rotor blades connected to said rotor hub, said rotor hub being rotatable about said post and moveable in translation to cause said rotor blades to occlude and unocclude said spaces; and a collar having a flat bottom, coaxially connected to said post, translation of said rotor being limited by said stator blades and the flat bottom of said collar. - View Dependent Claims (26)
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27. In the method of controlling a flow of blood in a heart, the steps of:
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providing an occludable space between adjacent ones of a plurality of stator blades disposed about a central axis; rotating a rotor about said axis and translating said rotor along said axis to cause a plurality of rotor blades to occlude and unocclude said space in response to respective backward and forward differential blood pressures across said rotor.
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28. An artificial heart valve, adapted for replacement of an exised human valve, comprising:
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an annular orifice ring for attachment to the heart, said orifice ring having an inlet, an outlet, and a chamber interconnecting the inlet and outlet along the longitudinal axis thereof; stator means including a stator hub operably disposed within said chamber and aligned with said longitudinal axis, said stator means further including a plurality of spatially separated, equally spaced stator blades each having its radially inward distal end portion fixedly secured to said rotor hub and at least one of said stator blades having its radially outer distal end portion fixedly secured to the inner annular wall of said orifice ring to prevent rotation of said stator hub with respect to said orifice ring; rotor means including a rotor hub operably disposed within said chamber and aligned with said longitudinal axis, said rotor means further including a plurality of spatially separated, equally-spaced rotor blades each having their radially inward distal end portion fixedly secured to said rotor hub for rotation therewith; and means for operably coupling said rotor means to said stator means along said longitudinal axis for rotation of said rotor means about said longitudinal axis and for translation along said longitudinal axis toward and away from said stator means for substantially occluding said chamber in response to a differential blood pressure in a backward direction across said rotor means to close the artificial heart valve and for substantially unoccluding said space in response to a differential blood pressure in a forward direction across said rotor means to open said artificial heart valve.
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29. An artificial heart valve adapted for replacement of an excised human heart valve comprising, in combination:
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an annular orifice ring for attachment to said heart and including means for defining an occludable space having a longitudinal axis; stator means operably disposed substantially within said orifice ring and aligned with said axis, said stator means secured against rotation within said orifice ring; rotor means constrained substantially entirely within said occludable space within said orifice ring for rotation and translation about and along said axis without contacting said orifice ring, said rotor means for substantially occluding and unoccluding said occludable space in response to differential blood pressures across said valve.
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30. A method of controlling the flow of blood in a heart comprising the steps of:
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providing an occludable space about an axis; rotating an occluder such that the angular rotation of the occluder is relatively independent of the magnitude of blood flow through the space; occluding and unoccluding the space in response to the differential blood pressure across the space; and controlling the angular rotation of the occluder to insure equal and opposite rotations of the occluder in both the occluding and unoccluding directions.
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31. A method of controlling a flow of blood in an artificial heart comprising the steps of:
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providing an occludable space between adjacent ones of a plurality of stator blades disposed about a central axis; and rotating a rotor about said axis and translating the rotor along said axis to cause a plurality of rotor blades to occlude and unocclude said space in response to respective backward and forward differential blood pressures across said rotor.
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Specification