Patent ID: 9603553
Date: 2017-03-28
CPC Classifications: A61B,A61F

Claim:
1. A method of sizing a heart valve annulus for implant of a prosthetic heart valve, comprising: accessing a patient's heart valve annulus; placing an orifice-expanding device of a sizing apparatus into the annulus, the sizing apparatus including a sensing device for determining an outward pressure exerted by the orifice-expanding device on the annulus; radially expanding the orifice-expanding device to cause the orifice-expanding device to exert an outward radial pressure against the annulus and cause the annulus to expand, and determining the outward radial pressure exerted against the annulus using the sensing device; halting the step of radially expanding the orifice-expanding device when a desired outward radial pressure is reached as determined by the sensing device; and determining a dimension of the expanded annulus while the orifice-expanding device is in the expanded annulus without using a calculation based on the pressure exerted by the orifice-expanding device.