Design and Development of Caged Ball Heart Valve Using Solid Works

Abstract

Currently, over 2, 90,000 heart valve surgeries are performed worldwide annually and that number is estimated to triple by 2050. Even though patients with prosthetic valves lead a life relatively free from symptoms, problems like physiological complications and valve failure are significant. To date, all mechanical heart valves are plagued with complications associated with hemolysis and coagulation. These complications are believed to be associated with non-physiological blood flow patterns in the vicinity of the artificial heart valves. The geometry of the valve prosthesis with respect to the mitral valve annulus may significantly affect the flow dynamics in the human heart. It is thus essential to assess the hemodynamics of mitral prosthetic caged ball valve to improve the design of the device. This research work presents a 3D model of the left human heart with optimized mitral caged ball valve engineered by a computational tool (SolidWorks 2009). The performance of the valve like hemodynamics across the valve, stress analysis and physical properties like mass, surface area, etc. is assessed virtually. This limits the need to perform extensive, costly and timeconsuming in-vitro and animal tests. Thus optimization of the caged ball heart valve design facilitates reduction of flow-induced thrombogenicity and reduces the need for post-implant anticoagulants.