Materials for Chitra heart valve prosthesis - A review

Abstract

Materials used in an artificial heart valve, for that matter any implant device, has to be compatible to the biological environment apart from being suitable in terms of physical and engineering properties. This limits the spectrum of materials available for such applications. The course of development of Chitra Heart Valve Prosthesis at Sree Chitra Tirunal institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum was a fascinating study of various aspects of material science, processing and evaluation. A review of different materials tried at various stages of valve development, evaluation of these materials and problems encountered are outlined in this paper.