Patent ID: 8852272

Claim:
Apparatus for use with a prosthetic valve for implantation at a native valve of a heart of a subject, the apparatus comprising: an overtube; and an upstream support portion, the upstream support portion: (a) having a compressed configuration in which the support is transcatheterally deliverable to the native valve within the overtube and in which the upstream support portion has a generally cylindrical shape, the cylindrical shape having a downstream end and an upstream end, each end having a perimeter, each perimeter of the cylindrical shape having a length and defining a free edge, (b) having an uncompressed configuration in which the upstream support portion: is configured to be placed against an upstream side of an annulus of the native valve, is shaped to define an opening, and has an outer perimeter and an inner perimeter, and (c) being movable from the compressed configuration to the uncompressed configuration by the downstream end being deployed from the overtube before the upstream end is deployed from the overtube, the apparatus being configured such that, upon deployment from the overtube, the upstream support portion moves from the compressed configuration to the uncompressed configuration thereof such that: the perimeter of the downstream end of the upstream support portion in the compressed configuration thereof becomes the inner perimeter of the upstream support portion in the uncompressed configuration thereof, and the perimeter of the upstream end of the upstream support portion in the compressed configuration thereof becomes the outer perimeter of the upstream support portion in the uncompressed configuration thereof.