Optimizing of the design of a prosthetic heart valve with three leaves

M. ROSENBERGER,; O. AMERIO; C. SCHVEZOV

http://www.fac.org.ar/ccvc/llave/tl211/tl211.pdf

Congreso; 4º Congreso Internacional de Cardiología por Internet.; 2005

Federación Argentina de Cardiología

Mechanical heart valves have a long life; however their blood flow performance is poor. In view of this it results justifiable to look for improvements in their design in order to obtain a better performance, closer for instance to that of a native aortic valve. One approach followed by the present authors is to employ three leaves and the pivot system in the peripheral part of the valve. With these it is expected to obtain a mostly central flow, a low thrombogenicity and a smooth operation. The design presents improvements with respect to previous designs made by the same authors. The most important modifications are the new design of the leaves which are now of cylindrical shape and the locations of the pivots right at the entrance of the valve.