The General Hospital Corporation

Warwick Mills, Inc.

Jennifer Keane White

Charles A Howland

James Sidney Titus

Virginia Houston-Howland

Methods and structures are disclosed where carrier fiber is used to enable the assembly of two and three dimensional structures of autologous tissue. Tissue is harvested from the donor, integrated with a carrier fiber, and assembled into complex forms rapidly. The structures can be tailored to the requirements of a specific medical procedure. The tissue is kept live and viable during extracorporeal assembly and the finished structure is emplaced in the donor's body. The use of a carrier fiber leader for pre-threading integration and assembly machines facilitates machine set up, drawing of the tissue into the process, and rapid integration and assembly of the multi-dimensional structures. Assembly can include providing tissue and fiber leaders extending from the structure for attaching the structure in place. The carrier fiber either is bio-absorbed as new tissue forms, or forms a bio-compatible substructure for the patient's native tissue.

Carrier fiber assembly for tissue structures

A perfusion cannula constructed of a wire mesh or other structure having an expandable portion capable of expanding from a constricted state to an expanded state such that a vessel is stented open while permitting fluid flow through a cannula into the vessel.

Dynamic cannula

A prosthetic tri-leaflet valve formed by involuting a portion of a tubular structure inside itself. The valve can be made by a method comprising providing a tubular segment in which three equidistant longitudinal incisions are made in one end of the tube creating three flaps which are involuted, i.e., folded, in toward the inside of the tube and the edges of the flaps secured to the inner wall of the tube to form leaflets. The tube can be formed of a single sheet of synthetic, organic or biological material and can be solid, woven, braided or the like. A braided configuration permits the valve to be annularly compressed and delivered to the site using a minimally invasive delivery mechanism, then expanded at the implantation site.

Growing community of inventors

Brookline, MA, United States of America

Jennifer Keane White