Cardiac constraint jacket construction

Claim 1

A jacket for placement over a heart to constrain congestive heart failure related expansion, said jacket comprising: a biocompatible fabric formed into a pouch having a base end and an apical end with an interior of the pouch sized to receive a patient's heart wherein the pouch has a longitudinal axis extending from the apical end to the base end and the fabric is stretchable in a direction transverse to the longitudinal axis; the base end having a peripheral edge defining a base opening sized to pass an apex of the heart through the base opening to slip the pouch onto the heart with the heart received within the interior of the pouch and with the apical end facing the apex of the heart and with the base end facing toward a base of the heart; the fabric at the base end folded over for the peripheral edge to have at least a double layer of the fabric and with the double layer terminating at a first free edge on an outer surface of the pouch and spaced from the peripheral edge wherein the first free edge is stitched in a non-linear pattern to an opposing surface of the fabric in a manner to permit the double layer to stretch as the fabric of the pouch is stretched; and the fabric including a side edge of opposing fabric surfaces extending from the apical end to the base end, the opposing fabric surfaces joined by a stretchable stitch assembly including: a first linear stitch line spaced from second and third free edges of the surfaces to define a junction of the fabric surfaces; the second and third free edges are folded back onto the fabric surfaces to define at least a double layer of fabric on opposite sides of the junction; and a second non-linear stitch line is placed over the junction and through the double layers on the opposite sides of the junction.