Engineering surgery-free prosthetic heart valve growth

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  Fig. 1.. The spontaneously growing valved stent. Left: Infant stenotic RV with high pressure gradients and small orifice. RVOT, right ventricular outflow tract. PA, pulmonary artery. Middle: Implanted stent immediately relieves afterload by increasing the orifice area. Spring energy then progressively released to further expand the graft via radial force (f) until its final size (right), at which point it operates like a standard stented valve at a more tolerable diameter. The stent is designed for the leaflets to remain competent during the entire expansion range as well as to allow the deloaded ventricle to reverse remodel while growing. PG, pressure gradient. Credit: Ashley Mastin/Science Advances.