Tissue prosthesis processing technology
View Patent ↗A heart valve prostheses crimping apparatus and method for deducing the diameter of stents containing heart valve prosthesis. A medical prosthesis catheter loading apparatus, including a crimping assembly for reducing the diameter of a prosthesis; and a catheter clamp for holding a catheter adjacent to the prosthesis. Also disclosed is an apparatus for reducing the diameter of a medical prosthesis, including a base, a crimp head connectable to the base, and an actuation mechanism connected to the base and connectable to the crimp head to actuate the crimp head. Also disclosed is a method of loading a medical prosthesis into a catheter, including the steps of reducing the diameter of a prosthesis from its normal deployed state to a diameter less than that of the lumen of the catheter; holding a catheter adjacent to the reduced diameter prosthesis; and moving the prosthesis into the catheter lumen.
1. A method of loading a medical prosthesis into a catheter, comprising the steps of:
a. reducing the diameter of a medical prosthesis from its normal deployed state to a diameter less than that of the lumen of the catheter by an apparatus including:
(i) a base, the base including a pair of crimp head retaining members, each crimp head retaining member having a crimp head segment guide, each crimp head segment guide comprising at least two concentric arrangements of linear grooves;
(ii) a crimp head connectable to the base and;
(iii) an actuation mechanism connected to the base and connectable to the crimp head to actuate the crimp head;
b. holding a catheter adjacent to the reduced diameter prosthesis; and
c. moving the prosthesis into the catheter lumen.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the crimp head comprises a plurality of crimp elements arranged about a central crimp aperture, each crimp element having a distal rectilinear slide block and a proximal rectilinear slide block.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising the step of linearly moving the crimp elements to vary the size of the central crimp aperture.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the actuation mechanism comprises a rotatable activation ring communicatively connected to the crimp elements, and further comprising the step of rotating the activation ring, whereby the crimp elements are linearly moved.