Temporary disposable scaffold stand and tools to facilitate reconstructive valve surgery

Abstract

A device for joining individual leaflets for repairing a cardiac valve of a patient has a base and projection fingers rising from the base to support adjacent leaflets for tacking together by sewing overlapping edges of adjacent leaflets prior to emplacement into the patient. The invention provides a cutting tool for excising leaflets from a pericardial tissue sheet according to predetermined sizes and shapes. A leaflet having a desired contour and size is obtained by pressing the tool formed as a cutter block against the tissue sheet. A set of blocks can be provided wherein each cutter block has an outer edge following a respective contour and size for a leaflet, and wherein the outer edge includes a raised cutting edge for pressing through the pericardial tissue sheet. The blocks can be held in a press for assisting in pushing the cutting edge through the tissue.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.