Heart valve prosthesis
First Claim
1. A method for improving the lifetimes of valves having leaflets as valve components, comprising the steps of:
- determining the stress lines associated with a leaflet; and
, providing stress relieving members along the stress lines, whereby mean time to failure of heart valves can be extended.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A heart valve prosthesis for use as an aortic or pulmonary replacement valve, or as a mitral or tricuspid valve includes leaflets that are reinforced through the use of oriented fiber components in a laminated composite, in which the leaflets of the valve are reinforced with fiber-reinforcing materials oriented along lines of stress in the material, thus to provide a long-lived valve that provides strength at points of maximal stress that have hitherto been foci for material failure. In a preferred embodiment involving a stentless valve, the reinforcing materials are optimized in terms of the density and orientation of the fibers in the composite materials, thus to extend the life of a stentless valve, with the valve requiring no anti-coagulants as is the case with mechanical valves and exhibiting no hemolysis in which red cells are damaged by the action of mechanical valves. Longevity exceeds thirty five years in most cases, making replacement of such a valve a remote possibility. In one embodiment, oriented fiber components of various geometries are provided by laying fibers in specific orientation over a curved mold to which polymer sheets are laminated.
138 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for improving the lifetimes of valves having leaflets as valve components, comprising the steps of:
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determining the stress lines associated with a leaflet; and
,providing stress relieving members along the stress lines, whereby mean time to failure of heart valves can be extended. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A leaflet for a heart valve having an improved lifetime, comprising:
a sheet of flexible material configured in the form of said leaflet; and
, a number of stress-relieving members affixed to said sheet and having lengths which are aligned with predetermined stress lines corresponding to lines of stress in said leaflet when said leaflet is deployed in said valve and said valve is operated so as to flex said leaflet.- View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
- 14. A heart valve leaflet having stress relieving members tailored in density and direction to expected stresses within said leaflet when said valve is in operation.
Specification