Expandable cardiac shunt

An expandable blood flow shunt formed of an elastic material and configured to be inserted into a puncture wound in a tissue wall between two anatomical chambers and expand from a collapsed state to an expanded state to maintain a blood flow opening therebetween, the tissue wall defining a horizontal reference plane, the shunt comprising, in an expanded state:

• a central flow tube defined by an opposed pair of lateral side walls formed by struts extending between an opposed pair of end walls formed by struts, the side walls and end walls together defining a tubular lattice and the central flow tube defining a central axis therethrough;
• only two distal flanges formed by struts connected to struts in the central flow tube at a first axial end thereof, the distal flanges extending away from one another in opposite longitudinal directions generally parallel to the horizontal reference plane, wherein there is one long and one short distal flange;
• and
• only two proximal flanges formed by struts connected to struts in the central flow tube at a second axial end thereof opposite the first end, the proximal flanges extending away from one another in opposite longitudinal directions generally parallel to the horizontal reference plane, wherein there is one long and one short proximal flange, the proximal flanges extending in the same directions as the distal flanges such that each proximal flange parallels one of the distal flanges to form a clamping pair of flanges with a gap therebetween sized to clamp onto the tissue wall, and wherein the long distal flange and the short proximal flange form a clamping pair and the short distal flange and the long proximal flange form a clamping pair, and
• wherein the two distal flanges and the two proximal flanges, respectively, extend parallel to a vertical reference plane perpendicular to the horizontal reference plane as opposed to in an annular/circular arrangement so that the shunt forms a sideways H-shape, and
• wherein the lateral side walls each connect directly to the end walls at the axial ends of the central flow tube adjacent the long proximal and distal flanges, but are separated from the end walls across spaces at the axial ends of the central flow tube adjacent the short proximal and distal flanges.

An expandable blood flow shunt formed of an elastic material and configured to be inserted into a puncture wound in a tissue wall between two anatomical chambers and expand from a collapsed state to an expanded state to maintain a blood flow opening therebetween, the tissue wall defining a reference plane, the shunt comprising, in an expanded state:

• a central flow tube comprising an opposed pair of lateral side walls formed by struts that define open cells extending between an opposed pair of end walls formed by struts that define open cells, the side walls and end walls together defining a tubular lattice and the central flow tube defining a central axis therethrough, wherein each side wall includes upper and lower rows of cells defined by the corresponding struts stacked along the central axis;
• two distal flanges formed by struts connected to struts in the central flow tube at a first axial end thereof, the distal flanges extending away from one another in opposite longitudinal directions generally parallel to the reference plane;
• and
• two proximal flanges formed by struts connected to struts in the central flow tube at a second axial end thereof, the proximal flanges extending away from one another in opposite longitudinal directions generally parallel to the reference plane, the proximal flanges extending in the same directions as the distal flanges such that each proximal flange parallels one of the distal flanges to form a clamping pair of flanges with a gap therebetween sized to clamp onto the tissue wall, and
• wherein the two rows of cells in each side wall stop short of the opposed end walls of the central flow tube to define spaces therebetween such that a first end wall directly connects only to the upper row of cells while a second end wall directly connects only with the lower row of cells.

An expandable blood flow shunt formed of an elastic material and configured to be inserted into a puncture wound in a tissue wall between two anatomical chambers and expand from a collapsed state to an expanded state to maintain a blood flow opening therebetween, the tissue wall defining a reference plane generally perpendicular to the opening, the shunt comprising, in an expanded state:

• a central flow tube defined by an opposed pair of lateral side walls formed by struts extending between an opposed pair of end walls formed by struts, the central flow tube defining a central axis therethrough angled from a reference axis extending perpendicular through the reference plane;
• two distal flanges formed by struts each attached to a first axial end of the central flow tube, the distal flanges extending away from one another in opposite longitudinal directions generally parallel to the reference plane;
• and
• two proximal flanges formed by struts each attached to a second axial end of the central flow tube opposite the first end, the proximal flanges extend away from one another in opposite longitudinal directions generally parallel to the reference plane, the proximal flanges extend in the same directions as the distal flanges such that each proximal flange parallels one of the distal flanges to form a clamping pair of flanges with a gap therebetween sized to clamp onto the tissue wall, wherein
• the struts of the lateral side walls form connected parallelograms defining open cells therein, and wherein
• each side wall includes upper and lower rows of parallelogram-shaped cells defined by the corresponding struts and stacked along the central axis, wherein the upper row connects to a first end wall only and the lower row connects to a second end wall only.

An expandable blood flow shunt formed of an elastic material and configured to be inserted into a puncture wound in a tissue wall between two anatomical chambers and expand from a collapsed state to an expanded state to maintain a blood flow opening therebetween, the tissue wall defining a reference plane generally perpendicular to the opening, the shunt comprising, in an expanded state:

• a central flow tube defined by an opposed pair of lateral side walls formed by struts extending between an opposed pair of end walls formed by struts, the side walls and end walls together defining a tubular lattice and the central flow tube defining a central axis therethrough;
• two distal flanges formed by struts connected to struts in the central flow tube at a first axial end thereof, the distal flanges extending away from one another in opposite longitudinal directions generally parallel to the reference plane, wherein there is one long and one short distal flange;
• and
• two proximal flanges formed by struts connected to struts in the central flow tube at a second axial end thereof opposite the first end, the proximal flanges extending away from one another in opposite longitudinal directions generally parallel to the reference plane, wherein there is one long and one short proximal flange, the proximal flanges extending in the same directions as the distal flanges such that each proximal flange parallels one of the distal flanges to form a clamping pair of flanges with a gap therebetween sized to clamp onto the tissue wall, and wherein the long distal flange and the short proximal flange form a clamping pair and the short distal flange and the long proximal flange form a clamping pair, wherein
• the struts of the lateral side walls form connected parallelograms defining open cells therein, and wherein
• each side wall includes upper and lower rows of parallelogram-shaped cells defined by the corresponding struts and stacked along the central axis, wherein the upper row connects to a first end wall only and the lower row connects to a second end wall only.