US Patent 7993392 Instrument and method for in situ deployment of cardiac valve prostheses

An instrument for deploying a cardiac valve prosthesis, including a plurality of radially expandable portions, at an implantation site, includes a plurality of deployment elements each independently operable to obtain the radial expansion of a radially expandable portion of the valve prosthesis. A method for deploying the cardiac valve prosthesis includes advancing the instrument to an implant site and independently actuating the radially expandable portions.