Method of dilating a stenotic aortic valve and implanting a prosthetic valve

1. A method for treating a stenotic native aortic valve in a human heart, comprising:

advancing a guidewire through the femoral artery and around the aortic arch in a direction against the flow of blood;

advancing a dilatation catheter over the guidewire, the dilatation catheter having an inflatable balloon disposed along a distal end portion;

dilating the stenotic native aortic valve by inflating the balloon in the native stenotic aortic valve to push aside the valvular leaflets of the stenotic native aortic valve;

withdrawing the dilatation catheter over the guidewire;

advancing a delivery catheter over the guidewire, the delivery catheter having a prosthetic heart valve disposed along a distal end portion thereof, the prosthetic heart valve including a collapsible and expandable metallic stent formed with intersecting bars which form zig-zag lines along upper and lower extremities of the stent, the stent having a substantially cylindrical shape when expanded in the native aortic valve and a collapsible and expandable valvular structure fixed to the stent along a coupling line, the valvular structure having open and closed positions for replacing the function of the native aortic valve, the valvular structure positioned entirely between the upper and lower extremities of the stent when in the closed position, the prosthetic heart valve further comprising an internal cover which forms a sleeve covering only a lower portion of the stent, the internal cover sewn to the valvular structure and to the bars of the stent for preventing passage of blood through spaces between the bars of the stent along the lower portion of the stent while blood is permitted to flow through spaces between the bars of the stent along an upper portion of the stent above the internal cover, wherein the spaces between the bars of the stent are covered by the internal cover only along the inner surface of the stent and only along the lower portion of the stent;

radially expanding the prosthetic heart valve in the dilated stenotic native aortic valve such that the intersecting bars of the stent embed into the valvular leaflets of the dilated stenotic native aortic valve;

withdrawing the delivery catheter over the guidewire; and

removing the guidewire.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radial expansion of the prosthetic heart valve is performed by inflating a balloon disposed along the distal end portion of the delivery catheter.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the prosthetic valve is introduced into the femoral artery through an introducer.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the introducer is a 18 French introducer.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the introducer is a 16 French introducer.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the introducer is a 14 French introducer.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the valvular structure is formed with a synthetic biocompatible material.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the internal cover is formed with a synthetic biocompatible material.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the synthetic biocompatible material comprises polyethylene.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the synthetic biocompatible material comprises polyamide.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stenotic native aortic valve is dilated to a diameter of at least about 20 millimeters before radially expanding the prosthetic heart valve.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stent is viewable under fluoroscopy during radial expansion of the prosthetic heart valve.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein, after radial expansion, the stent of the prosthetic heart valve has a constant diameter with a linear profile.