Device and method for localized heart motion dampening at a cardiac surgical site

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention is directed to a surgical device and method for dampening the rhythmic motions of a patient's heart during a cardiac surgical procedure.
In particular, the present invention dampens the motions of the patient's beating heart in a localized area on the surface of the heart where a surgical procedure is to be performed.
More particularly, the present invention provides a novel technique for locally dampening heart motions by providing a structure, preferably ring-like in shape, having prongs or projections that grip the surface tissue of the heart to thereby anchor the structure directly to the heart.
Upon applying a resistive force or forces to the heart motion via, for example, the ring-like structure, an interior opening in a ring-like structure provides access to the surgical site without the typical heart motions complicating the surgical technique being performed thereon.
A further aspect of certain embodiments of the present invention involves the provision of attachments or flanges on the present heart stabilizing device for transmitting resistive forces to the beating heart, thus dampening the heart motion.
Such flanges may be used for manually applying pressure to the present invention so that it maintains a predetermined position on the patient's heart.
Alternatively, in other embodiments of the flanges, they may be grasped by surgical equipment (such as clamps) and thereby held in place providing the necessary resistive or dampening forces.
Alternatively, the heart dampening device of the present invention may be held in place by an assembly attached to a surgical retractor.
Additionally, other heart motion dampening techniques and materials may also be incorporated into the present invention.
In particular, elastic or resilient foams or gels may be used in combination with the prongs for dampening the heart motions.
That is, in one embodiment, by providing such elastic or resilient materials in an area extending beyond the ring-like structure, such resilient materials may be used for partially dampening the heart motions in a wider area than the ring-like structure so that the sites where the prongs penetrate the heart tissue do not experience all the stress induced by the resistive or dampening forces that are transmitted through the prongs