Prosthetic heart valve

A prosthetic heart valve which includes a stent having three leaflets attached thereto, the stent being compressible to a compressed condition in which it is capable of being introduced into a patient's body through a minimally invasive procedure and further being expandable from the compressed condition to an operative condition during deployment of the valve within the patient's body, the stent having a ring-like body with an inlet and an outlet and defining in its height three arch-shaped elements each of which has an arc and a pair of haunches extending from opposite sides thereof, with three commissural posts formed by the haunches of adjacent arch-shaped elements,

• wherein primary reinforcing members are provided that span between adjacent commissural posts of the arch-shaped elements and which act to strengthen the stent so as to support the leaflets during operation of the valve, and wherein secondary reinforcing members extend between the haunches of adjacent arch-shaped elements, wherein the secondary reinforcing members are spaced apart along the length of the haunches, and additional reinforcing members provided below the arcs of the arch-shaped elements which assist in securing the stent within the valve annulus and further assist in maintaining the arch-shape of the arch-shaped elements during compression and expansion of the valve so as to ensure that the valve is able to return to its operative condition after compression thereof, and
• wherein the width of the arch-shaped elements varies along their length with the arcs and peaks at the ends of the haunches being wider than the remainder of the arch-shaped elements, the variation in width ensuring that stresses in the arch-shaped elements are kept at a minimum during expansion and compression of the stent while ensuring that the stent is capable of returning to its operative condition after compression and expansion thereof,
• each leaflet having an attachment edge and a free edge with a belly extending between the free edge and the attachment edge, the leaflets being movable between an open condition, in which fluid flow through the valve is permitted in a direction from the inlet to the outlet, and a coapted condition, in which the free edges abut and prevent fluid flow through the valve in an opposite direction from the outlet to the inlet, wherein the leaflets are made from a polymeric material and are attached to the stent by moulding to thereby encapsulate the arch-shaped elements so that the attachment edge of each leaflet is continuously attached along the length of an arch-shaped element, and
• wherein the arch-shape is defined by a parametric curve and its mirror image along the z-axis which is wrapped about a cylinder having a diameter of the prosthetic heart valve, with the parametric curve being defined by a function A(x)=(1−x)3P0+3(1−x)2xP1+3(1−x)x2P2+x3P3, with P0 to P3 being control points, wherein P0 and P3 are selected on the basis of the diameter and height of prosthetic heart valve, and wherein P1 is selected from the range of 0≤z≤H and P2 is selected from the range 0≤x≤πD/6 where H is the height and D the diameter of the prosthetic heart valve.