Delivery systems, methods and associated devices to facilitate delivery and deployment of a heart implant. Such delivery systems and methods of delivery include use of a pair of magnetic catheters, including an anchor delivery catheter carrying an anchor, which can be stacked with or can be axially offset from the magnetic head. Such systems further include use of a puncturing guidewire advanceable through the magnetic head of the anchor delivery catheter to establish access to a chamber of a heart and which is attached to a bridging element such that continued advancement of the guidewire draws a bridging element attached to the first anchor across the chamber of the heart while the bridging element remains covered by the magnetically coupled catheters. Methods and devices herein also allow for cutting and removal of a bridge element of a deployed heart implant.

An electronically assisted artificial vertebral disc having an upper disc plate and a lower disc plate is disclosed. An actuator imparts movement to at least one of the upper and lower disc plates. A control device controls the actuator and the amount of movement between the disc plates. The actuator includes a plurality of either linear actuators or rotary actuators that are driven by electric motors in response to the control device. The control device includes at least a first sensor for detecting the position of the actuator and at least a second sensor for detecting the spatial orientation of at least one of the upper and lower disc plates. The control device also preferably includes a microprocessor that calculates the desired positions of the upper and lower disc plates and provides a control signal to the actuator to drive the upper and lower disc plates to their desired positions.

A mitral cerclage annuloplasty apparatus includes a catheter with a blocking member and a capturing member. The blocking member is in the shape of a pigtail or a balloon, and is configured on the distal portion of the catheter preventing the catheter from traversing through an unsafe zone thereby enabling the catheter to pass through the safe zone. This prevents damage to critical cardiac tissues. The capturing member is adapted for pulling out a RVOT cerclage wire into the IVC, and comprises of an expandable and collapsible mesh so that the RVOT cerclage wire is captured and directed into the IVC through the safe zone. Thus the RVOT cerclage wire is passed through the RV without damaging the heart tissue forming a complete circle around the mitral valvular annulus.

Apparatus consisting of a plurality of mechanically connected magnetic elements implanted around the lower esophagus sphincter with the purpose to restore its normal function in patients suffering from gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), while avoiding dysphagia.

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to methods and/or apparatuses involving the deployment and coupling of catheters. As may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments, each of first and second catheters extend from a proximal end to a distal end and has a magnet. The catheters may be deployed, and the distal ends of the respective catheters can be aligned and connected via magnetic coupling of the magnets to one another. A shaft structure is configured and arranged to extend within the first catheter and into the second catheter, through the connected distal ends of the respective catheters.

Disclosed are methods, systems, and devices for the endovascular repair of cardiac valves, particularly the atrioventricular valves which inhibit back flow of blood from a heart ventricle during contraction. The procedures described herein can be performed with interventional tools, guides and supporting catheters and other equipment introduced to the heart chambers from the patient's arterial or venous vasculature remote from the heart. The interventional tools and other equipment may be introduced percutaneously or may be introduced via a surgical cut down, and then advanced from the remote access site through the vasculature until they reach the heart.

Systems and methods treat a heart valve using a magnetically adjustable annuloplasty ring attached to or near a cardiac valve annulus. A changing magnetic field may be used to selectively increase or decrease a circumference of, or otherwise modify the shape of, the implanted annuloplasty ring. The adjustable annuloplasty ring includes a tubular body member, one or more adjustable members, and an internal magnet within the tubular body member. The tubular body member and the one or more adjustable members form a ring shape. The internal magnet is configured to rotate in response to a rotating external magnetic field. The internal magnet is coupled to the one or more adjustable members to change a dimension of the ring shape as the internal magnet rotates. A system for treating a heart valve may include an external adjustment device having one or more external magnets to generate the rotating external magnetic field.

A method includes advancing a delivery assembly through a patient's vasculature toward a native heart valve of the patient, wherein the delivery assembly comprises a first catheter assembly and a second catheter assembly extending through a shaft of the first catheter assembly, and wherein a support member is in an uncoiled, elongated configuration within a sheath of the first catheter assembly. The support member is deployed from the sheath by pushing the second catheter assembly distally relative to the first catheter assembly so that the support member is uncovered by the sheath and the support member extends around native chordae tendineae and/or native leaflets of the native heart valve. A prosthetic valve is implanted within the native leaflets of the native heart valve such that the native chordae tendineae and/or native leaflets are frictionally engaged between the support member and the prosthetic valve.

A medical tool for placement in a digestive tract lumen includes a tubular portion, which opens at two ends, and an annular attachment portion, which is configured to be fixed to at least a part of the tubular portion and be capable of installing the tubular portion in the digestive tract lumen. The tubular portion is placeable along the digestive tract, has a side surface that is capable of conforming to the shape of the inner wall of the digestive tract, and allows digestive juice or digested contents to permeate. The attachment portion is configured to be placeable in the stomach through the mouth.

This disclosure relates generally to prosthetic valves and methods and systems for deploying, positioning, and recapturing the same. A prosthetic valve includes one or more support structures. At least one of the one or more support structures defines an elongate central passageway of the prosthetic valve. The prosthetic valve can also include a plurality of leaflet elements attached to at least one of the one or more support structures and disposed within the elongate central passageway for control of fluid flow through the elongate central passageway. At least one of the one or more support structures is configured to biodynamically fix the prosthetic valve within a native valve such as, for example, a native tricuspid valve of a heart.