Research

The design, development, and evaluation of a prototypic, prosthetic venous valve

Matt T Oberdier and Stanley E Rittgers

Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325, USA

author email corresponding author email

BioMedical Engineering OnLine 2008, 7:25doi:10.1186/1475-925X-7-25

Published:	19 September 2008

Abstract

Background

Chronic venous insufficiency is a serious disease for which there is no clearly successful surgical treatment. Availability of a proven prosthetic vein valve could provide such an option by reducing venous reflux while permitting normal antegrade flow.

Methods

A new prosthetic vein valve design has been developed which mimics the function of a natural valve by ensuring complete closure of the leaflets with minimal obstruction for antegrade flow. A 2:1 mock-up of the device was tested to evaluate its ability to prevent regurgitation and several key modifications were made. A subsequently re-designed 1:1 prototype was then built in 4 slightly different size configurations and then each tested under physiologic conditions of pulsatile flow in both supine and standing positions.

Results

Each of the configurations showed acceptable amounts of antegrade resistance and effective orifice area and showed low values of regurgitation and % reflux with two of the prototype configurations (flange lengths of 2.5 mm and 3.75 mm) having corresponding values of <2.5 mmHg-min/L, >97%, 11 mL, and 36%, respectively. These values are particularly striking when compared to the corresponding regurgitation and % reflux values of 60 mL and 205%, respectively, when no device is present.

Conclusion

The results of this study show that this prototype vein valve design is capable of providing significant relief of reflux under realistic conditions without inducing any increase in antegrade flow resistance and warrants further testing with in vivo models.