A modular prosthetic valve device forimplantation in a patient is disclosed. The valve deviceis designed as two or more modules to be deliveredunassembled and combined into an assembledvalve device in the body - e.g., in the body at or nearthe site where implantation occurs. The two or moremodules may be a support structure and a valve assembly.The valve assembly may be formed from twoor more valve sections. Because the valve device ofthe invention is deliverable as modules, it may have asmaller delivery diameter than pre-assembled percutaneousvalves and permits use of a delivery device ofreduced diameter. Delivering the valve device asmodules increases the flexibility of the valve deviceduring delivery, compared to percutaneous valve devicesin the art. The invention further provides a systemfor and method of delivering such a modularvalve device and assembling it in vivo. The modulesof the valve device may be connected by pull wiresfor delivery sequentially to or near the implantationsite in the body lumen, and then assembled by remotemanipulation using the pull wires. The system mayfurther include a temporary valve that may be deployedto maintain valvular function while the devicemodules are assembled. The temporary valve may beattached to the delivery device and deployed eitherbefore or after the support structure is expanded, or the temporary valve maybe attached to the support structure and deployedwhen the support structure is expanded. Various locking mechanisms areprovided for attaching the device modules together.
