| dc.description.abstract | All available heart valve medical devices on the market are made from biological tissues.
The major drawback of using biological tissue is that it is prone to calcification, which is generally why the intervention was needed in the first place. There is also the limitation of lifetime of the device; because it is a biological material it is more prone to degradation, wear, and tear. This leaves room for improvement of the valve device, to move from a tissue valve to a polymer valve. There has been great promise with preliminary materials studies showing resistant to calcification and an almost doubling lifespan for a valve. However, none of this proposed polymer valves have gone through clinical testing and are in general still being bench- top studied. There is ample room for companies or research groups to explore medical device innovation relating to a polymer leaflet material. | en_US |
