Reconfiguring Heart Features
Among other things, a heart tissue support has gripping elements, each element having a free end that is sharp enough to penetrate heart tissue when pushed against the tissue, and a feature to resist withdrawal from the tissue after the sharp free end has penetrated the tissue. Among other things, the shape of a heart valve annulus is corrected in a catheter laboratory by orienting a tip of a catheter holding a heart tissue support that has gripping elements at the valve annulus, applying a radial force from the catheter against the annulus by opening a structure at the tip of the catheter, and while the structure is opened, forcing the support onto the annulus. Among other things, the shape of a heart valve annulus is corrected during a surgical procedure by pushing a heart tissue support that has gripping elements onto the annulus.
1 - 30 . (canceled)
31 . A method comprising:
correcting the shape of a heart valve annulus in a catheter laboratory by orienting a tip of a catheter holding a heart tissue support that has gripping elements at the valve annulus, applying a radial force from the catheter against the annulus by opening a structure at the tip of the catheter, and while the structure is opened, forcing the support onto the valve annulus.
32 . A method comprising:
correcting the shape of a heart valve annulus during a surgical procedure by pushing a heart tissue support that has gripping elements onto the valve annulus.
33 . A method comprising
attaching, to different sized heart valve annuli in different patients, supports that can be expanded in preparation for attachment and allowed to contract to a common relaxed, non-expanded native size when they are in place on the annuli, and
reducing the sizes of at least some of the in-place supports to be smaller than the common relaxed non-expanded native size, to accommodate the different sized heart valve annuli of different patients.
34 . (canceled)
35 . A method comprising:
pushing a support onto a region of heart tissue to cause only a portion of a number of small grippers on the support to embed themselves and be retained in the tissue, the portion being sufficient to attach the support securely to the heart tissue.
36 - 44 . (canceled)
45 . The method of claim 31 comprising causing the support to conform to a delivery configuration for attachment to the valve annulus.
46 . The method of claim 31 in which forcing the support onto the valve annulus comprises applying a force to the catheter in a direction axial to the annulus.
47 . The method of claim 31 in which forcing the support onto the valve annulus causes a tapered surface of the tip of the catheter to engage the valve annulus.
48 . The method of claim 31 comprising sheathing the support before the tip of the catheter is placed in a vicinity of the valve annulus, and unsheathing the support in the vicinity of the valve annulus.
49 . The method of claim 31 comprising retracting the tip of the catheter from the heart valve.
50 . The method of claim 49 in which retracting comprises releasing the support.
51 . The method of claim 49 in which releasing the support comprises breaking a connection between the support and the tip of the catheter.
52 . The method of claim 32 comprising causing the heart tissue support to conform to a delivery configuration for attachment to the valve annulus.
53 . The method of claim 32 in which pushing the support onto the valve annulus comprises applying a force to the support in a direction axial to the annulus.
54 . The method of claim 32 comprising causing some of the gripping elements to pierce tissue of the valve annulus.
55 . The method of claim 32 comprising permitting the support to contract into a long-term configuration.
56 . The method of claim 33 in which the common relaxed non-expanded native size corresponds to a diameter of a delivery head of a delivery tool used to attach the supports.
57 . The method of claim 33 in which reducing the sizes of at least some of the in-place supports comprises allowing the supports to contract to respective long-term configurations.
58 . The method of claim 33 comprising attaching at least some of the supports in a catheter laboratory.
59 . The method of claim 35 comprising causing the support to conform to a delivery configuration for attachment to the heart tissue.
60 . The method of claim 35 comprising sheathing the support before the support is placed in a vicinity of the region of heart tissue and unsheathing the support in the vicinity of the region of heart tissue.