#2022002 - Dedicated transcatheter heart valve

Background and Need

It is estimated that the prevalence of valvular heart disease is currently affecting >100 million patients worldwide and with the population aging, the prevalence of this disease will further increase. More than 200 000 heart valve replacement surgeries are performed annually worldwide. Durability of bioprosthetic heart valves is limited. The introduction of transcatheter heart valves to treat failed bioprosthetic valves, has changed the paradigm of mechanical versus bioprosthetic heart valve selection as it is now possible to treat failing bioprosthetic heart valve with transcatheter heart valve without the need for additional surgery. As transcatheter heart valves were not designed for valve-in-valve procedures their utilization in a significant amount of cases is problematic in several aspects: First is coronary artery occlusion. Second, even in cases in which coronary artery occlusion does not occur, future coronary access is problematic in many cases, third concern in valve-invalve procedure is the limitation of valve expansion and increased post procedural gradients across the valve.
 

Invention

The invention is comprised of a dedicated bioprostethic heart valve that has unique characteristics especially relevant for transcatheter aortic valve-in-valve procedures.