William Marsh Rice University

Baylor College of Medicine

Daniel A Harrington

Henri Justino

Kwonsoo Chun

Mary C Farach-Carson

Xinqiao Jia

Robert L Witt

Swati Pradham Bhatt

Some embodiments are directed to methods for serially expanding an artificial heart valve within a pediatric patient. For example, the artificial heart valve can be implanted into the pediatric patient during a first procedure, and then expanded during a second procedure to accommodate for the pediatric patient's growth. Some embodiments include introducing an expander into the implanted valve when the frame is expanded to a first working diameter, and then actuating the expander to expand the frame to a second working diameter greater than the first working diameter, to accommodate for the pediatric patient's growth.

Serially expanding an artificial heart valve within a pediatric patient

Some embodiments are directed to a transcatheter and serially-expandable artificial heart valve, e.g., to be minimally-invasively implanted into a pediatric patient during a first procedure, and then expanded during a second procedure to accommodate for the pediatric patient's growth. Some embodiments include an expandable frame having a compressed, delivery configuration, and an expanded, deployed configuration, in which the valve is implantable within the patient. The valve can have a first working condition when the frame is expanded to a first diameter and a second working condition when the frame is expanded to a second diameter greater than the first diameter. The valve can include a plurality of leaflets configured to accommodate the expansion of the frame and growth of the patient.

Transcatheter and serially-expandable artificial heart valve

Implantable modular hydrogels to aid in salivary gland restoration and associated methods are provided. In one embodiment, the present disclosure provides for a hydrogel network comprising: a hyaluronic acid macromer crosslinked with a multiblock copolymer.

Implantable modular hydrogel for salivary gland restoration

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Daniel A Harrington