Cardiac support device with differential compliance
AssigneeAcorn Cardiovascular, Inc.
InventorsClifton A. Alferness, Jai Shankar Raman, John Melmouth Power
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Abstract
A cardiac support device comprising a jacket of flexible and biocompatible material having a first axis for alignment generally parallel to a longitudinal axis of a patient's heart and a second axis that is transverse to the first axis. The material exhibits an amount of expansion in response to a force applied to the material along the first axis that is different than an amount of expansion in response to the force applied to the material along the second axis.
Claims16
A method for treating heart disease in a mammal, including:
- passively constraining expansion of the heart along both a first axis aligned generally parallel to a longitudinal axis of the heart and a second axis that is transverse to the first axis;
- and
- causing the amount of constraint in response to a force applied along the first axis to be different than an amount of constraint in response to a force applied along the second axis.
A method for treating heart disease in a mammal, including:
- passively constraining expansion of the heart along both a first axis and a second axis that is non-parallel to the first axis;
- and
- causing the amount of constraint in response to a force applied along the first axis to be different than an amount of constraint in response to a force applied along the second axis.
A method for treating disease in a mammalian heart having a longitudinal axis and a transverse axis, comprising placing on the mammalian heart a jacket of flexible and biocompatible material having first and second transverse axes and exhibiting an amount of expansion in response to a force applied to the material along the first axis that is different than an amount of expansion in response to the force applied to the material along the second axis, including placing the jacket with the first axis aligned with the longitudinal axis of the heart and the second axis aligned with the transverse axis of the heart.
A method, including causing a jacket of flexible and biocompatible material having first and second transverse axes and exhibiting an amount of expansion in response to a force applied to the material along the first axis that is different than an amount of expansion in response to the force applied to the material along the second axis to be placed on a mammalian heart having a longitudinal axis and a transverse axis for purposes of treating disease of the heart, including providing the jacket configured for placement with the first axis aligned with the longitudinal axis of the heart and the second axis aligned with the transverse axis of the heart.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.