Sutureless heart valve attachment

Abstract

A prosthetic heart valve having spaced apart anchoring flanges that change shape when the valve is implanted and contact the surrounding annulus to prevent migration of the valve. The heart valve may be non-expandable and the anchoring flanges may provide the primary anchoring structure of the valve. Alternatively, the valve may be expandable wherein the anchoring flanges supplement the inherent anchoring capacity of the valve structure. The anchoring flanges are at least partly made of a material that increases in size, i.e., swells, due to absorption of body fluids. For instance, the anchoring flanges may be formed of an inner material that swells upon contact with body fluids enclosed by a cover. The anchoring flanges may be provided on an anchoring sleeve that changes shape to provide the spaced apart annular flanges for securing the valve around a fibrous annulus. An anchoring sleeve for a prosthetic heart valve having an expandable frame surrounds a majority of the frame and may define an external hourglass configuration.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.