Stent designs for prosthetic heart valves

A prosthetic heart valve configured to be expanded between native leaflets of a native aortic annulus of a patient, the prosthetic heart valve comprising:

• a stent having a proximal end at a proximalmost edge of the stent, a distal end at a distalmost edge of the stent, an annulus section adjacent the proximal end, and an aortic section adjacent the distal end, the stent being movable between a collapsed condition and an expanded use condition, the stent including a plurality of struts shaped to form a plurality of cells connected to one another in a plurality of annular rows around the stent, the stent defining a flow direction from the proximal end toward the distal end, the stent having a minimum diameter in a direction perpendicular to the flow direction and a length in the flow direction, the length of the stent defined between the proximal and the distal ends when the stent is in the expanded use condition, the length of the stent being greater than the minimum diameter;
• a cuff attached to the stent;
• and
• a plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets attached to the cuff between a first location and a second location distal to the first location in the flow direction, each of the plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets having a free edge, the plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets being attached to the cuff while the stent is in the collapsed condition and in the expanded use condition, the entire free edge of each of the plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets being distal to a location along the stent length located at a position that is a distance of at least three-fifths of the length of the stent, and the distance extends from the proximalmost edge.

A prosthetic heart valve configured to be expanded between native leaflets of a native aortic annulus of a patient, the prosthetic heart valve comprising:

• a stent having a proximal end at a proximalmost edge of the stent, a distal end at a distalmost edge of the stent, an annulus section adjacent the proximal end, and an aortic section adjacent the distal end, the stent being collapsible and expandable, the stent including a plurality of struts shaped to form a plurality of cells connected to one another in a plurality of annular rows around the stent, the stent defining a flow direction from the proximal end toward the distal end, the stent having a minimum diameter in a direction perpendicular to the flow direction and a length in the flow direction, the length of the stent defined between the proximal and the distal ends when the stent is in an expanded use condition, the length of the stent being greater than the minimum diameter;
• a cuff attached to the annulus section of the stent, the cuff having distal and proximal edges and occupying a first group of the plurality of cells, such that some of the plurality of cells distal to the distal edge are open cells at least partially devoid of the cuff, the cuff having a landing zone that is a continuous cylindrical portion of the cuff, the landing zone having a length parallel to the flow direction extending at least one-third of the length of the stent in the flow direction, the length of the landing zone defined between the proximal edge of the cuff and a proximalmost location along the distal edge of the cuff;
• and
• a plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets sutured to the cuff between a first location and a second location distal to the first location in the flow direction, each of the plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets having a free edge,
• wherein the entire free edge of each of the plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets is located within a first distance in the flow direction from the distal end of the stent when the plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets are in an open position and the stent is in the expanded use condition, the first distance being less than the length of the landing zone in the flow direction.