Bi-leaflet heart valve

Claim 1

A heart valve prothesis for allowing blood flow there through in a downstream direction, said valve comprising: a generally annular valve body having an interior surface defining a central passageway through which blood flows, said valve body interior surface being formed with a frustoconical downstream section opening in a downstream direction; a pair of leaflet occluders proportioned to be pivotally received within said valve body and to move between an open position and a closed position wherein they block the reverse flow of blood in an upstream direction, said leaflet occluders each having a generally planar main body portion with opposed lateral edges disposed between a mating edge and an arcuate edge; a pair of protruberances extending from said interior surface to pivotally mount each lateral edge of said leaflet occluders, the protuberances of each pair of protuberances having rounded leaflet-engaging edge surfaces generally facing each other and being spaced apart so as to receive one said leaflet lateral edge therebetween, facing each other and being spaced apart so as to receive one said leaflet lateral edge therebetween; protuberance-engaging means along each leaflet occluder lateral edge, including a concave downstream surface region and a generally opposed convex upstream surface region cooperating with the concave surface region to form a portion of enlarged cross-sectional thickness relative to said planar main body portion, said concave surface regions of a leaflet occluder being located on the lateral edges thereof at a location between a straight edge section thereof and said leaflet arcuate edge said concave surface regions being downwardly opening and elongated for translational movement of said leaflet occluders along said protuberances as said leaflet occluders are moved between said open and said closed positions; and said leaflets being installed in said annular valve body so that said downstream protuberances are received in respective leaflet concave downstream surface regions and said convex surface regions lie adjacent said upstream protuberances, said protuberances being spaced apart from each other with a preselected spacing and said leaflet lateral edges which are received between said protuberances being dimensioned so that rotational excursion of said leaflet occluders is limited by said protuberances and so that said protuberances guide said leaflet occluders for both translational and rotational movement with respect thereto as said leaflet occluders are moved between said open and said closed positions, and so that said leaflet lateral edges are retained by said protuberances so as to prevent disengagement therefrom during valve opening and valve closing.