CATHETER-BASED ANNULOPLASTY USING VENTRICULARLY POSITIONED CATHETER
The present invention relates to a minimally invasive method of performing annuloplasty. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for performing annuloplasty includes accessing a left ventricle of a heart to provide a discrete plication element to the left ventricle, and engaging the plication element to tissue near a mitral valve of the heart. Engaging the plication element includes causing the plication element to gather a portion of the tissue to create a plication. In one embodiment, accessing the left ventricle of the heart to provide the plication element includes accessing the left ventricle of the heart using a catheter arrangement.
1 - 36 . (canceled)
37 . A method for performing an annuloplasty procedure, comprising the steps of:
introducing a catheter into a left ventricle of a heart;
positioning the catheter into a gutter region of the heart under a mitral valve and at an intersection of the mitral valve and a left ventricular wall until the catheter forms an arc shape along a contour of the left ventricular wall in the gutter region; and
deploying a plurality of anchors from the catheter into tissue of the heart in the gutter region, the anchors deforming from a first shape to a second shape upon deployment.