Patent ID: 7914569

Claim:
A valve prosthesis comprising: a valve body comprising a plurality of leaflets sewn to a skirt, adjoining leaflets sewn together to form commissures; and a self-expanding frame comprising a plurality of cells, the frame having a substantially conical inflow section, a flared outflow section, and a constriction region between the inflow section and the outflow section, wherein the constriction region is configured to avoid blocking blood flow to the coronary arteries when the frame is implanted in a body, wherein the frame supporting supports the valve body, wherein the frame has a longitudinal axis, wherein the frame has a contracted delivery configuration and an expanded deployed configuration, wherein, when the frame is in the expanded deployed configuration, the inflow section, the outflow section, and the constriction region have substantially circular cross-sections, the outflow section has a larger diameter than the inflow section, and the inflow section has a larger diameter than the constriction region, wherein the skirt has a bottom edge, the inflow section of the frame has an inflow edge, and the bottom edge of the skirt is sewn to the inflow edge of the inflow section, wherein the commissures are sewn to the frame along a region of the frame that increases in diameter along the longitudinal axis in an intended direction of blood flow, wherein each commissure is configured to span a cell of the frame to distribute force within the commissures and to the frame, and wherein a plurality of cells of the frame are positioned between the cells spanned by commissures, wherein at least a portion of the commissures are longitudinally offset from the center of coaptation, and each leaflet has a free edge that is suspended from the leaflet's respective commissures to define coaptation edges and a center of coaptation, and wherein the length of each free edge forms a substantially continuous curve extending downwardly between the respective commissures so that the free edges of the leaflets generally define the shape of catenaries to substantially uniformly distribute loads over the leaflets.