Patent ID: 8529621

Claim:
A method of correcting the functionality of a patient's mitral valve in a mitral annulus having an anterior leaflet and a posterior leaflet, comprising: providing an annular prosthetic ring made of a material that can substantially maintain an implanted shape defining a curved posterior section contiguous with a generally rectilinear anterior section and together forming a periphery oriented around a central flow axis, wherein in plan view as seen along the flow axis the prosthetic ring has a transverse plane that defines a maximum width representing an identifying size parameter of the prosthetic ring corresponding to the dimension of the base of the patient's anterior leaflet in systole, and a longitudinal plane perpendicular to the transverse plane that bisects the anterior and posterior sections, the prosthetic ring having a height from the anterior section to the posterior section along the longitudinal plane; and implanting the prosthetic ring at the patient's mitral valve such that the curved posterior section lies along the mitral annulus at the base of the posterior leaflet and the generally rectilinear anterior section lies along the mitral annulus at the base of the anterior leaflet; wherein the prosthetic ring has a reduced height to maximum width ratio relative to a normal height to width ratio found in the annulus of natural valves free of pathology so that when implanted the prosthetic ring squeezes the mitral annulus along the longitudinal axis such that the posterior valve leaflet and anterior valve leaflet move toward each other relative to their normal spacing as found in a natural valve free of pathology while the mitral annulus in the transverse direction and the maximum width of the prosthetic ring remain substantially unchanged.