Patent ID: 7824442

Claim:
A method for endovascularly replacing a heart valve of a patient, the method comprising: providing a replacement heart valve comprising an expandable anchor and replacement leaflets; providing a delivery system comprising a first plurality of actuation elements and a second plurality of actuation elements; endovascularly delivering the replacement heart valve in an unexpanded configuration within a sheath to a vicinity of the heart valve while maintaining a releasable coupling of the first plurality of actuation elements to a proximal region of the replacement heart valve and while maintaining a releasable coupling of the second plurality of actuation elements to the replacement heart valve at a location distal to where the first plurality of actuation elements are coupled to the replacement heart valve; deploying the replacement heart valve from the sheath in the vicinity of the heart valve; expanding the expandable anchor in the vicinity of the heart valve by applying an axially directed force on the replacement heart valve with at least one of the first plurality of actuation elements and the second plurality of actuation elements, wherein expanding the expandable anchor occurs after deploying the replacement heart valve; and uncoupling the first plurality of actuation elements and the second plurality of actuation elements from the replacement heart valve after the expanding step to release the replacement heart valve from the delivery system wherein the expanding step comprises expanding the anchor with at least one of the first plurality of actuation elements and the second plurality of actuation elements without passing any of the first and second plurality of actuation elements through a center opening of the replacement heart valve.