The present disclosure relates in general to heart valve replacement and, in particular, to collapsible prosthetic heart valves. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to devices and methods for positioning collapsible prosthetic heart valves and sealing same in the patient's anatomy to minimize or prevent perivalvular leakage.
Prosthetic heart valves that are collapsible to a relatively small circumferential size can be delivered into a patient less invasively than valves that are not collapsible. For example, a collapsible valve may be delivered into a patient via a tube-like delivery apparatus such as a catheter, a trocar, a laparoscopic instrument, or the like. This collapsibility can avoid the need for a more invasive procedure such as full open-chest, open-heart surgery.
Collapsible prosthetic heart valves typically take the form of a valve structure mounted on a stent. There are two types of stents on which the valve structures are ordinarily mounted: a self-expanding stent or a balloon-expandable stent. To place such valves into a delivery apparatus and ultimately into a patient, the valve must first be collapsed or crimped to reduce its circumferential size.
When a collapsed prosthetic valve has reached the desired implant site in the patient (e.g., at or near the annulus of the patient's native heart valve that is to be replaced by the prosthetic valve), the prosthetic valve can be deployed or released from the delivery apparatus and re-expanded to full operating size. For balloon-expandable valves, this generally involves releasing the entire valve, and then expanding a balloon positioned within the valve stent. For self-expanding valves, on the other hand, the stent automatically expands as the sheath covering the valve is withdrawn.
In one example, a biocompatible foam structure for sealing a gap between a medical device and adjacent body tissue includes an expandable ring-shaped body. The expandable ring-shaped body may be configured to be disposed about the medical device and to expand from a first radius in a compressed condition to a second radius in an expanded condition, the second radius being greater than the first radius. The body may be formed from a compliant biocompatible configured and arranged to conform to the body tissue.
A prosthetic heart valve includes a collapsible and expandable stent having a proximal end, a distal end, an annulus section adjacent the proximal end and an aortic section adjacent the distal end, a collapsible and expandable valve assembly disposed within the stent and including a plurality of leaflets, and a cuff annularly disposed about the valve assembly in the annulus section. The heart valve may further include a ring-shaped body disposed about the stent and configured to expand from a first radius in a compressed condition to a second radius in an expanded condition, the second radius being greater than the first radius, the body being formed from a compliant biocompatible foam configured to conform to body tissue.
In some examples, a method of sealing a space between a medical device and adjacent tissue includes delivering the medical device and a ring-shaped body to a target site using a delivery system having a sheath disposed over the medical device and the body. The sheath may be removed to expose the medical device and the body such that the medical device and the body expand. The space between the expanded medical device and the adjacent tissue may be sealed with the expanded body disposed therebetween.
Various embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein with reference to the drawings, wherein:
Various embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the appended drawings. It is to be appreciated that these drawings depict only some embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope.
Despite the various improvements that have been made to the collapsible prosthetic heart valve delivery process, conventional devices suffer from some shortcomings. For example, with conventional self-expanding valves, clinical success of the valve is dependent on accurate deployment and effective sealing within the patient's anatomy. Inaccurate deployment and anchoring may result in the leakage of blood between the implanted heart valve and the native valve annulus, commonly referred to as paravalvular (also sometimes referred to as perivalvular) leakage. In aortic valves, this leakage enables blood flow from the aorta back into the left ventricle, reducing cardiac efficiency and putting a greater strain on the heart muscle. Additionally, calcification of the aortic valve may affect performance and the interaction between the implanted valve and the calcified tissue is believed to be relevant to leakage.
Moreover, anatomical variations between patients may require removal of a fully deployed heart valve from the patient if it appears that the valve is not functioning properly. Removing a fully deployed heart valve increases the length of the procedure and increases the risk of infection and/or damage to heart tissue. Thus, methods and devices are desirable that would reduce the need to remove a deployed valve. Methods and devices are also desirable that would reduce the likelihood of paravalvular leakage around the implanted heart valve.
There therefore is a need for further improvements to the devices, systems, and methods for transcatheter positioning of collapsible prosthetic heart valves and the sealing of the implanted valves within the patient's anatomy. Specifically, there is a need for further improvements to the devices, systems, and methods for sealing a prosthetic heart valve within a native valve annulus. Among other advantages, the present disclosure may address one or more of these needs.
As used herein, the term “proximal,” when used in connection with a prosthetic heart valve, refers to the end of the heart valve closest to the heart when the heart valve is implanted in a patient, whereas the term “distal,” when used in connection with a prosthetic heart valve, refers to the end of the heart valve farthest from the heart when the heart valve is implanted in a patient. When used in connection with devices for delivering a prosthetic heart valve or other medical device into a patient, the terms “trailing” and “leading” are to be taken as relative to the user of the delivery devices. “Trailing” is to be understood as relatively close to the user, and “leading” is to be understood as relatively farther away from the user.
The biocompatible foams of the present invention may be used in connection with collapsible prosthetic heart valves.
Prosthetic heart valve 100 will be described in more detail with reference to
Stent 102 may also include a plurality of commissure features 166 for attaching the commissure between two adjacent leaflets to stent 102. As can be seen in
Stent 102 may include one or more retaining elements 168 at distal end 132 thereof, retaining elements 168 being sized and shaped to cooperate with female retaining structures (not shown) provided on the deployment device. The engagement of retaining elements 168 with the female retaining structures on the deployment device helps maintain prosthetic heart valve 100 in assembled relationship with the deployment device, minimizes longitudinal movement of the prosthetic heart valve relative to the deployment device during unsheathing or resheathing procedures, and helps prevent rotation of the prosthetic heart valve relative to the deployment device as the deployment device is advanced to the target location and the heart valve deployed.
Valve assembly 104 is secured to stent 102, preferably within annulus section 140 of stent 102. Valve assembly 104 includes cuff 176 and a plurality of leaflets 178 which collectively function as a one-way valve by coapting with one another. As a prosthetic aortic valve, valve 100 has three leaflets 178, as well as three commissure features 166. However, it will be appreciated that other prosthetic heart valves with which the leak occluders of the present invention may be used may have a greater or lesser number of leaflets 178 and commissure features 166.
Although cuff 176 is shown in
Prosthetic heart valve 100 may be used to replace a native aortic valve, a surgical heart valve or a heart valve that has undergone a surgical procedure. Prosthetic heart valve 100 may be delivered to the desired site (e.g., near the native aortic annulus) using any suitable delivery device. During delivery, prosthetic heart valve 100 is disposed inside the delivery device in the collapsed condition. The delivery device may be introduced into a patient using a transfemoral, transapical, transseptal or any other percutaneous approach. Once the delivery device has reached the target site, the user may deploy prosthetic heart valve 100. Upon deployment, prosthetic heart valve 100 expands so that annulus section 140 is in secure engagement within the native aortic annulus. When prosthetic heart valve 100 is properly positioned inside the heart, it works as a one-way valve, allowing blood to flow from the left ventricle of the heart to the aorta, and preventing blood from flowing in the opposite direction.
Problems may be encountered when implanting prosthetic heart valve 100. For example, in certain procedures, collapsible valves may be implanted in a native valve annulus without first resecting the native valve leaflets. The collapsible valves may have clinical issues because of the nature of the stenotic leaflets that are left in place. Additionally, patients with uneven calcification, bi-cuspid aortic valve disease, and/or valve insufficiency cannot be treated well, if at all, with the current collapsible valve designs.
The reliance on unevenly calcified leaflets for proper valve placement and seating could lead to several problems, such as paravalvular leakage (PV leak), which can have adverse clinical outcomes. To reduce these adverse events, the optimal valve would anchor adequately and seal within the native valve annulus without the need for excessive radial force that could harm nearby anatomy and physiology.
Biocompatible foam 300 may be activated using a stimulus, such as a chemical stimulus, light or heat. For example, biocompatible foam 300 may be a heat-activated shape-memory foam capable of changing shape due to a change in temperature such as, for example, by being brought in contact with a warm saline injection or natural body heat. The temperature at which foam 300 changes from a deformed shape to its original shape or vice versa is referred to as the transition temperature. In examples in which a heat-activated shape-memory foam is used, biocompatible foam 300 may have a transition temperature ranging from about 30 degrees Celsius to about 50 degrees Celsius. In some examples, biocompatible foam 300 may have a transition temperature from about 24 degrees Celsius to about 45 degrees Celsius. In some other examples, biocompatible foam 300 may have a transition temperature ranging from about 35 degrees Celsius to about 39 degrees Celsius. In some examples, biocompatible foam 300 may have a transition temperature that is within one degree Celsius from normal core body temperature (i.e., about 98.6° F.). An example of a suitable heat-activated shape-memory foam is SMP Foam, available from SMP Technologies Inc. (Tokyo, Japan).
Another parameter that may be useful in choosing the proper biocompatible foam 300 is the density of the foam. As previously noted, a foam typically includes voids dispersed throughout its mass, which will decrease the density of the foam. The density of biocompatible foam 300 may be high enough to impede blood flow, but low enough to permit adequate compression such that the foam may be delivered to the target site via a low profile delivery system (e.g., 18 Fr delivery system) and to allow the heart valve to fully expand therein. In one example, biocompatible foam 300 may have a density between about 10 kg/m3 and about 60 kg/m3. In other examples, biocompatible foam 300 may have a density between about 45 kg/m3 and about 55 kg/m3.
Biocompatible foam 300 may also be chosen based on the volume change between the compressed state and the expanded state. For example, biocompatible foam 300 may experience a volume change of between about 500% and about % 1000 when subjected to its transition temperature or other means of transition. For example, foam 300 may experience a volume change of about 700% when its temperature is raised from 35 degrees Celsius to 37 degrees Celsius.
As seen in
The size, shape and density of ring 330 may be adjusted to achieve a desirable profile of radial forces. For example, ring 330 may be constructed such that when fully expanded it has a circumferential stress of 350 kPa. Additionally, as will be appreciated from
One example of initializing shape-memory foam ring 330 for usage includes compressing the size of the ring after cutting it into the proper shape. Specifically, after heating ring 330 above the transition temperature of foam 300 or otherwise coaxing foam 300 to its expanded state (see r1 in
The compressed ring 330 may be placed around the outer circumference of a prosthetic heart valve 100 and attached to heart valve 100 as shown in
In a first step, heart valve 100, with ring 330 disposed thereabout, may be loaded into a delivery system 400 having an outer sheath 410, a distal cap 420 and an inner core 430. As shown in
Upon reaching native valve annulus 250, delivery systems 400 may be distally advanced until distal cap 400 is positioned at a point past the native valve annulus, and outer sheath 410 may be proximally pulled back in the direction of arrow S2 to expose heart valve 100 (
If heart valve 100 fails to perform adequately, for example, due to inadequate coaptation of the leaflets or improper placement, heart valve 100 may be retrieved within sheath 410 and repositioned and/or removed. To this end, various methods may be used to recapture a partially-deployed valve, such as, for example, through the use of tethers, clips or the like. Once heart valve 100 and foam ring 330 have been properly positioned and fully deployed and expanded, sheath 410 and distal cap 420 may be brought together and delivery system 400 may be proximally pulled through the center of the heart valve in the direction of arrow S2 and removed from the patient's body (
As seen in
While the inventions herein have been described for use in connection with heart valve stents having a particular shape, the stent could have different shapes, such as a flared or conical annulus section, a less-bulbous aortic section, and the like, and a differently shaped transition section. Additionally, though biocompatible foam 300 has been described for use in connection with expandable transcatheter aortic valve replacement, it may also be used in connection with surgical valves, sutureless valves and other devices in which it is desirable to create a seal between the periphery of the device and the adjacent body tissue. Although the deployment of biocompatible foam 300 has been described using a catheter that deploys prosthetic heart valve 100 in tandem with ring 330, it will be understood that the heart valve may be delivered first, followed by the foam ring. It will also be understood that while the preceding disclosure has illustrated the use of a single foam ring 330 to fill gaps, multiple foam rings and other structures may be deployed at varying lateral sections of a heart valve.
Moreover, although the disclosure herein has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it is to be understood that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and applications of the present disclosure. It is therefore to be understood that numerous modifications may be made to the illustrative embodiments and that other arrangements may be devised without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
In some examples, the biocompatible foam may include a polymeric shape-memory material. The biocompatible foam may include a heat-activated shape-memory material. The shape-memory material may have a transition temperature of between about 34 degrees Celsius and about 40 degrees Celsius. The shape-memory material may have a transition temperature that is within one degree Celsius from core body temperature of a human being. The body may include a plurality of voids dispersed throughout its mass to reduce density. The body may have a density of between about 10 kg/m3 and about 60 kg/m3. The body, when fully expanded may have a circumferential stress of about 350 kPa. The body may be compressible to fit within a 18 Fr delivery system. The medical device may be a prosthetic heart valve having a collapsible and expandable stent, a valve assembly disposed in the stent for controlling the flow of blood through the stent, and a cuff disposed about the valve assembly, and wherein the body overlaps with a portion of the cuff. The body may be configured to radially project about 3 mm to about 5 mm from an outer circumference of the medical device when no external force is applied thereupon. The body may be coupleable to the medical device via sutures.
In some examples, the biocompatible foam may include a polymeric shape-memory material. The biocompatible foam may include a heat-activated shape-memory. The body may be compressed within the sheath and self-expands upon unsheathing. The body may include a biocompatible foam. The biocompatible foam may include a heat-activated shape-memory polymer that changes shape when deployed at the target site. Additionally, in certain methods, sealing may be encouraged by flushing the body with a fluid to aid in expanding the biocompatible foam of the body.
It will be appreciated that the various dependent claims and the features set forth therein can be combined in different ways than presented in the initial claims. It will also be appreciated that the features described in connection with individual embodiments may be shared with others of the described embodiments.