Patent ID: 7895876

Claim:
A method of crimping a prosthetic valve, comprising: providing a prosthetic valve crimping device having a plurality of rotationally constrained but radially movable jaws each having at least one camming member and a radially inner face such that the combination of all the radially inner faces defines a variable sized crimping aperture centered about a central axis, the crimping device further including an actuator connected to move a plurality of cams comprising spiral tracks each centered around the central axis that receive the jaw camming members; positioning an expandable prosthetic valve within the crimping aperture, the prosthetic valve having an expanded diameter of at least 19 mm; displacing the actuator such that the moving cams contact the at least one camming member on each jaw and apply radially inward forces to the jaws sufficient to narrow the crimping aperture and crimp the prosthetic valve down to a desired reduced diameter of at least 10 mm less than its expanded diameter; and removing the crimped prosthetic valve from the crimping aperture and passing it through a prosthetic valve gauge attached to the prosthetic valve crimping device having a throughbore calibrated to the desired reduced diameter to ensure that the prosthetic valve has been crimped to the desired reduced diameter.