Annuloplasty Ring

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Millions of people suffer from heart valve disease every year (“US Markets for Heart Valves”, 2007). Out of all of the heart valve diseases, “mitral regurgitation is the second most common valvular heart disease” (Baumgartner et al., 2006). This is due to the fact that the mitral valve experiences the most pressure and blood flow compared to the other valves in the heart (“US Markets for Heart Valves”, 2007). The disease occurs when blood leaks back into the left auricle from the left ventricle, which is caused by the mitral valve not closing properly (Lantada et al., 2009). The majority of the time, the mitral valve does not function correctly due to a structural abnormality (Buckner et al., 2010). These abnormalities can occur in either the papillary chords or the papillary muscles (Lantada et al., 2009). The frequency of the mitral valve abnormalities, especially in the elderly population, led to extensive research to find a solution (“US Markets for Heart Valves”, 2007).

Many experiments later, a device was born. In the late 1960s a man by the name of Carpentier developed the first annuloplasty ring (Christenson & Kalangos, 2009). He created the device in an attempt to reduce the size of the mitral valve and as a result decrease the severity of the mitral regurgitation (Lantada et al., 2009). Annuloplasty rings are designed to aid in the repair of the mitral valve. The repair of a mitral valve is preferred over complete replacement. This is mainly due to the fact that the patient is not required to use long term drug therapy following surgery (Buckner et al., 2010). After a valve has been repaired, the annuloplasty ring is sutured onto the patient’s native mitral annulus. The ring not only reconstructs the shape of the mitr...

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...Annuloplasty on Anterior Leaflet Three-Dimensional Geometry.” The Journal of Heart Valve Disease 17, 2007. 5 April 2011: 149-154.

Hasenkam, Michael J., Henrik Jensen, Morten O. Jensen, Robert A. Levine, Sten L. Nielsen, Hans Nygaard, Morten Smerup, and Ajit P. Yoganathan. “Saddle-Shaped Mitral Valve Annuloplasty Rings Experience Lower Forces Compared with Flat Rings.” Circulation 118, 2008. 5 April 2011: S250-S255.

Lantada, Andres Diaz, Pilar Lafont Morgado, Julio Munoz-Garcia, Juan Manuel Munoz-Guijosa, Javier Echavarri Otero, Jose Luis Munoz Sanz, and Raquel Del Valle-Fernandez. “Development of Personalized Annuloplasty Rings: Combination of CT Images and CAD-CAM Tools.” Annals of Biomedical Engineering 38, 2009. 28 March 2011: 280-290.

“US Markets for Heart Valves.” SAGE Sourcebook of Modern Biomedical Devices: Business Environments, 2007. 21 April 2011.

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