Patent ID: 6908482

Claim:
An annuloplasty ring, comprising: a ring body generally arranged about an axis and being discontinuous so as to define two free ends at a break in continuity around a periphery of the ring body, wherein the ring body has a relaxed configuration following a three-dimensional path that conforms to a valve annulus such that the free ends are axially offset from an annulus reference plane through a midpoint of the ring body; wherein the ring body comprises an inner structural support having two free ends, a curvilinear anterior side ending in a first free end, a relatively straight septal side ending in a second free end, and a curvilinear posterior side extending between the anterior and septal sides; wherein the structural support has a radial cross-section that gradually changes around its length and is partly C-shaped in the posterior side; and wherein the two free ends are rectangular in radial cross-section and are more flexible in bending about the axis than the C-shaped part of the cross-section.