An artificial heart valve is a device which is implanted in the heart of patients who suffer from valvular diseases in their heart. When one or two of the four heart valves of the heart have a malfunction, the choice is normally to replace the natural valve with an artificial valve. This requires open-heart surgery.
Valves are integral to the normal physiological functioning of the human heart. Natural heart valves are structures which have evolved a form which meets their functional requirements, which is to induce largely unidirectional flow through them. Natural heart valves may become dysfunctional due to a variety of pathological causes. Certain heart valve pathologies may necessitate the complete surgical replacement of the natural heart valves with heart valve prostheses.
Contents
• 1 Types of heart valve prostheses
• 2 Mechanical valves
o 2.1 Types of MHV's
o 2.2 Durability
o 2.3 Fluid mechanics
o 2.4 Blood damage
• 3 Biological valves
• 4 Functional requirements of heart valve prostheses
• 5 Design challenges of heart valve prostheses
• 6 Typical configuration of a heart valve prosthesis
• 7 MHV manufacturers
• 8 External links
Types of heart valve prostheses
There are two main types of artificial heart valves: the mechanical and the biological valves.
• Mechanical heart valves
o Percutaneous implantation
Stent framed
Not framed
o Sternotomy/Thoracotomy implantation
Ball and cage
Tilting disk
Bi-leaflet
Tri-leaflet
• Biological heart valves
o Allograft/isograft
o Xenograft
Mechanical valves
A mechanical artificial heart valve with a pivoting disc.
Mechanical heart valves are prosthetics designed to replicate the function of the natural valves of the human heart. The human heart contains four valves: tricuspid valve, pulmonic valve, mitral valve and aortic valve. Their main purpose is to maintain unimpeded forward flow through the heart and from the heart into the major blood...