Rapid deployment prosthetic heart valve

A two-stage prosthetic heart valve, comprising:

• an expandable anchoring member having opposed ends and an open channel therethrough, and sized to contact a heart valve annulus in an expanded state;
• a non-expandable valve member having a base ring on an inflow end and plurality of commissure posts extending in an outflow direction that support flexible leaflets comprising animal tissue therebetween, the base ring being sized to seat against or within a first end of the anchoring member;
• and
• a plurality of coupling posts attached to the anchoring member and extending from the first end thereof, one over each of the commissure posts of the valve member, so as to secure the valve member to the anchoring member.

A system for retrofitting a conventional prosthetic heart valve, comprising:

• an off-the-shelf, non-expandable prosthetic heart valve having a sewing ring on an inflow end capable of being implanted using sutures through the sewing ring in an open-heart procedure, the heart valve having a plurality of commissure posts extending in an outflow direction that support flexible leaflets comprising animal tissue therebetween;
• an expandable anchoring member having opposed ends and an open channel therethrough, and sized to contact and anchor to a heart valve annulus in an expanded state, a first end of the anchoring member being sized to seat against or around the sewing ring;
• and
• coupling means for connecting the prosthetic heart valve to the anchoring member, the prosthetic heart valve thus being attached to the heart valve annulus via the anchoring member, the coupling means being attached to the anchoring member and extending from the first end thereof over the commissure posts of the heart valve so as to secure the heart valve to the anchoring member.