Prosthetic heart valve cooling
AssigneeMedtronic Vascular, Inc.
InventorsWei Wang, Benjamin Wong, Laura McKinley, Joshua Dudney, Tracey Tien, Karl Olney
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods of compressing a stented prosthetic heart valve are disclosed. The method including inserting a stented prosthetic heart valve having a self-expandable stent frame into a container, initiating a cooling element in the container, transferring heat through a thermal conductor to cool an interior of the container, reducing a temperature of the self-expandable stent frame while located within the container to a critical temperature of not greater than 8° C., and compressing an outer diameter of the stented prosthetic heart valve while the stented prosthetic heart valve is at the critical temperature.
Claims16
A method of compressing a stented prosthetic heart valve, comprising:
- inserting a stented prosthetic heart valve having a self-expandable stent frame into a container;
- initiating a cooling element in the container including mixing reagents of the cooling element to cause an endothermic reaction and breaking a temporary barrier between the reagents, the breaking of the temporary barrier including, compressing a second chamber to break the temporary barrier and release the reagents;
- transferring heat through a thermal conductor to cool an interior of the container;
- reducing a temperature of the self-expandable stent frame while located within the container to a critical temperature;
- and
- compressing an outer diameter of the stented prosthetic heart valve while the stented prosthetic heart valve is at the critical temperature.
A method of loading a stented prosthetic heart valve to a transcatheter delivery system, comprising:
- inserting a stented prosthetic heart valve in an expanded state into a first chamber of a cooling vessel;
- initiating cooling in a second chamber of the cooling vessel;
- manually compressing an exterior of the cooling vessel to cause mixing of reagents endothermic reaction:
- transferring heat from the first chamber to the second chamber through a thermally conductive wall to cool an interior of the first chamber;
- reducing a temperature of the stented prosthetic heart valve while located within the first chamber to a critical temperature of not greater than 8° C.;
- removing the stented prosthetic heart valve from the first chamber;
- compressing the stented prosthetic heart valve while at the critical temperature;
- and
- inserting the compressed stented prosthetic heart valve into a delivery system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.