Patent ID: 7918844

Claim:
A system for attaching a medical implant to soft body tissue, the system comprising: (a) a medical implant having a deployed state and an undeployed state, wherein the medical implant comprises: (i) a stationary member, (ii) a rotatable member, and (iii) one or more integral fasteners, wherein the one or more integral fasteners are configured to move between an undeployed state and a deployed state upon rotation of the rotatable member relative to the stationary member; and (b) an applier for changing the state of the medical implant on soft tissue, the applier comprising: (i) a body member having a distal end, (ii) at least one rotary actuator member operably attached to said body member for transferring movement of said actuator member to said medical implant thereby changing the state of said implant from the undeployed state to the deployed state, wherein the rotary actuator comprises one or more features configured to engage the rotatable member of the medical implant, wherein the rotary actuator is rotatable to rotate the rotatable member of the medical implant relative to the stationary member of the implant in a first direction to move the one or more integral fasteners of the medical implant to the deployed state to attach said medical implant to soft tissue, wherein the rotary actuator is further rotatable to rotate the rotatable member of the medical implant relative to the stationary member of the implant in a second direction to cause the rotatable member to exert an undeploying force on the fasteners to actively pull the one or more integral fasteners of the medical implant back to the undeployed state from the deployed state to remove said medical implant from the soft tissue, and (iii) a locator adjacent to said actuator and said distal end of said body, said locator being configured to receive said medical implant therein, wherein the locator is configured to prevent rotation of the stationary member of the medical implant while the rotary actuator rotates the rotatable member of the medical implant.