Patent ID: 7628803
Filing Date: 2009-12-08
Classification: A61F

Abstract:
1. A valve prosthesis for implantation within a vascular vessel, comprising: a support frame supporting two or more leaflets, the two or more leaflets including a co-aptation position and cooperatively forming a valve orifice, at least a portion of the support frame supporting each of the two or more leaflets at a point adjacent the valve orifice; each of the two or more leaflets including opposing proximal and distal leaflet surfaces and first and second outer edges; the support frame and leaflets together functional as a valve to restrict blood flow in a first direction when implanted in the vascular vessel; the support frame comprising frame elements around which the first and second outer edges of the two or more leaflets are wrapped to allow the first and second outer edges of each of the two or more leaflets to non-circumferentially engage a wall of the vascular vessel such that the frame elements are non-centering of the co-aptation position within the vascular vessel; and at least one centering support element configured to center the co-aptation position within the vascular vessel, each of the at least one centering support element attached to the frame elements only at one or more points adjacent the two or more leaflets and including a portion that traverses one of the two or more leaflets from the first outer edge to the second outer edge and is free of contact with the proximal leaflet surface and the distal leaflet surface of one of the two or more leaflets; wherein the support frame comprises a first serpentine section having first and second opposing bends positioned at a first end of said valve prosthesis and third and fourth opposing bends positioned at a second, opposite end of said valve prosthesis, said first and second opposing bends lying on a first transverse axis of said valve prosthesis and said third and fourth opposing bends lying on a second transverse axis of said valve prosthesis; wherein the at least one centering support element comprises a centering support frame comprising a second serpentine section having fifth and sixth opposing bends positioned at the first end of said valve prosthesis and seventh and eighth opposing bends positioned at the second, opposite end of said valve prosthesis, said fifth and sixth opposing bends lying on a third transverse axis of said valve prosthesis and said seventh and eighth opposing bends lying on a fourth transverse axis of said valve prosthesis; wherein the first transverse axis is substantially perpendicular to the second transverse axis and the third transverse axis is substantially perpendicular to the fourth transverse axis; wherein the first transverse axis is substantially perpendicular to the third transverse axis and the second transverse axis is substantially perpendicular to the fourth transverse axis; wherein each of the support frame and the centering support frame are discrete structures interconnected at two or more points; and wherein the opposing bends at the first and second ends of the support frame are the only bends in the first and second ends of the support frame.