Stent Designs For Prosthetic Heart Valves
AssigneeSt. Jude Medical, Cardiology Division, Inc.
InventorPeter N. Braido
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A prosthetic heart valve includes a collapsible and expandable stent, a cuff attached to an annulus section of the stent, and leaflets attached to the cuff between a first location and a second location distal to the first location in a flow direction. The stent may include struts shaped to form a plurality of cells connected to one another in annular rows around the stent. The cuff may have top and bottom edges and may occupy a first group of the cells, such that cells above the top edge are open cells at least partially devoid of the cuff. The cuff may have a landing zone extending at least one-third of a length of the stent in the flow direction between the bottom edge of the cuff and a proximal end of a most proximal cell of the open cells when the stent is in an expanded use condition.
Claims16
A prosthetic heart valve configured to be expanded between native leaflets of a native aortic annulus of a patient, the prosthetic heart valve comprising:
- a stent having an expanded condition and a collapsed condition, the stent in the expanded condition having a longitudinal axis, a proximal end, a distal end, an annulus section adjacent the proximal end, and an aortic section adjacent the distal end, the stent defining a flow direction from the proximal end toward the distal end, the annulus section including a plurality of cells;
- a cuff attached to the stent, the cuff having a distal edge and a proximal edge, the cuff being configured such that some of the plurality of cells distal to the distal edge are open cells at least partially devoid of the cuff, the cuff having a landing zone that is a continuous cylindrical portion of the cuff, a length of the landing zone being defined between the proximal edge of the cuff and a proximalmost location along the distal edge of the cuff when the stent is in the expanded condition, the cuff including a proximal portion and a distal portion, the proximal portion consisting of a single layer and being coupled to, and entirely covering, a first group of the plurality of cells adjacent the proximal edge, the distal portion consisting of a single layer and being coupled to a second group of the plurality of cells adjacent the distal edge, the proximal portion being formed from a first material having a first average thickness in a radial direction perpendicular to the flow direction, and the distal portion being formed from a second material having a second average thickness in the radial direction perpendicular to the flow direction, the first average thickness being greater than the second average thickness;
- and
- a plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets attached to the cuff, each of the plurality of prosthetic valve leaflets having a free edge.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.