Collapsible prosthetic heart valves

A prosthetic heart valve, comprising:

• a collapsible and expandable support structure extending between an inflow end and an outflow end and including three commissures, each commissure having two posts and an elongate opening that spans a length of the commissure between the posts;
• a plurality of leaflets disposed inside the support structure and operative to allow flow in a first direction from the inflow end to the outflow end and to substantially block flow in an opposite direction from the outflow end to the inflow end, each of the plurality of leaflets including tabs, and each tab extending through an opening of one of the commissures;
• a plurality of panels of fabric, each covering an opening of one of the commissures, each of the panels of fabric being attached to adjacent tabs of adjacent leaflets via sutures, each suture being orthogonal to one of the panels of fabric, and each of the panels of fabric being disposed radially outwardly of corresponding adjacent tabs;
• and
• a fabric cover circumscribing each post of the commissures, wherein the cover is disposed radially inwardly relative to the panels of fabric, and wherein the cover is coupled to the support structure via the sutures.

A prosthetic heart valve, comprising:

• a collapsible and expandable support structure extending between an inflow end and an outflow end, an inflow edge adjacent the inflow end, and including three commissures, each commissure having an elongate opening that spans a length of the commissure and a longitudinally-extending flange on each side of the elongate opening, wherein each flange includes a plurality of openings extending radially therethrough;
• a plurality of leaflets disposed inside the support structure and operative to allow flow in a first direction from the inflow end to the outflow end and to substantially block flow in an opposite direction from the outflow end to the inflow end, each of the plurality of leaflets including tabs, wherein adjacent tabs of adjacent leaflets extend through the elongate opening of a respective commissure and diverge from each other, wherein one tab of the adjacent tabs extends partially around a first flange of the respective commissure, and wherein another tab of the adjacent tabs extends partially around a second flange of the respective commissure;
• a first fabric layer circumferentially disposed on a radially-inwardly facing surface of the support structure and attached to the support structure;
• a second fabric layer circumferentially disposed on a radially-outwardly facing surface of the support structure and attached to the support structure;
• and
• a plurality of panels of fabric, each of the panels of fabric being attached to adjacent tabs of adjacent leaflets and to the flanges of one of the commissures via sutures, each suture being orthogonal to a corresponding panel of fabric and extending through the tabs of the leaflets.