Patent ID: 6096075
Filing Date: 2000-08-01
Classification: A61F

Abstract:
A prosthetic heart valve which comprisesa tubular valve body having an interior wall surface of generally circular cross-section which has a pair of opposed flat sidewall sections,said sidewall sections being parallel to each other and located so as to be diametrically opposed,two leaflets mounted within said valve body on pivot means so as to alternately open to permit blood flow downstream through said valve body and close to prevent blood flow therethrough, said leaflets pivoting on axes that are parallel to each other and perpendicular to said flat sidewall sections,said valve body interior wall surface in each of the two opposite regions between said flat sidewall sections being uninterrupted rectilinear surface,said leaflets each having a flat edge, which interengages with the flat edge of said other leaflet in the closed position, and a major arcuate edge, which is formed with a central tip of greatest extension and terminates at each end in a flat lateral edge, said arcuate leaflet edge having a surface which substantially rectilinear, being composed of lines which are substantially parallel to said flat sidewall sections in the closed position, said arcuate edge and said pair of lateral edges lying in juxtaposition with said generally circular cross-section interior wall of said valve body and said flat sidewall sections, respectively, in the closed position, andsaid arcuate edge of each leaflet and said interior generally circular cross-section rectilinear wall surface being shaped so that (a) said arcuate edge is spaced from said rectilinear interior wall surface at said central tip, and (b) there is generally line contact between each said arcuate edge and said rectilinear interior wall surface at two spaced apart locations at distances between about 20.degree. and about 60.degree. of arc in opposite directions from said central tip.