A blood pump comprises a pump casing having a blood flow inlet and a blood flow outlet connected by a passage, and an impeller arranged in said pump casing so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation. The impeller is provided with blades sized and shaped for conveying blood along the passage from the blood flow inlet to the blood flow outlet, and is rotatably supported in the pump casing by a first bearing at a first axial end of the impeller and a second bearing axially spaced apart from the first bearing. The first bearing comprises a projection extending along the axis of rotation and connected to one of the impeller and the pump casing and a cavity in the other one of the impeller and the pump casing, the projection comprising an enlarged portion that engages the cavity such that the first bearing and the second bearing are arranged to bear axial forces in the same axial direction.

The invention relates to a micromotor (10), the stator of which contains a back iron jacket (18). Said back iron jacket consists of a continuous unslotted sleeve consisting of a metal alloy that contains ferritic iron as the main constituent, up to 30% chromium and preferably aluminium and yttrium oxide. Electric conductivity is reduced by the oxidation of the aluminium. The yttrium oxide performs the same function. The reduced electric conductivity suppresses eddy currents to a great extent. The back iron jacket (18) has a high magnetic conductivity with a small wall thickness, thus increasing the electrical output for a motor with a small diameter.

A blood pump, such as an axial flow pump, having a pump housing, the pump housing defining a flow path and having a tapered portion adjacent to an outlet, tapering toward the outlet, an outflow cannula connected to the outlet of the pump housing, and an impeller and diffuser, disposed in the pump housing, the diffuser having a tapered body corresponding to the tapered portion of the pump housing, the diffuser body having at least one vane extending therefrom, the vein tapering in the same direction as the diffuser body. The present invention also includes a method of manufacturing the blood pump and a method of implanting the blood pump.

An artificial heart for use in a human recipient includes a housing within which a quartet of turbine pump segments are operative. The quartet of turbine pump segments is configured to provide a pair of redundant input and output turbine pump segment pairs each input and output pair being coupled by a curved passage providing a redundancy which, in turn, enhances the safety factor provided by the artificial heart. Each turbine pump segment includes an impeller forwarded for rotation and having a plurality of impeller blades together with a static deswirler positioned within the impeller output flow to reduce the swirling turbulence of the blood flow induced by the rotating impeller.

A catheter system for a catheter pump is disclosed. The system can include an elongate catheter body having a distal portion including an expandable cannula having an inlet and an outlet. The expandable cannula can have a delivery profile and an operational profile larger than the delivery profile. An impeller assembly can include an impeller shaft and an impeller body. A sheath can have a cannula retention zone disposed over the expandable cannula and a separation zone. The cannula retention zone can have a first configuration adapted to retain the expandable cannula in the delivery profile. The system can be adapted to separate the separation zone into a first portion and a second portion disposed across a gap. The gap can enable the elongate catheter body to pass between the first and second portion so that the sheath can be removed from the elongate catheter body.

A catheter pump assembly is provided that includes an elongate body, an elongate flexible shaft disposed in the elongate body, and an impeller coupled with the distal end of the elongate flexible shaft. The drive system includes a drive component, a motor and a tension member. The tension member is coupled with the motor and the drive component and to cause the drive component to rotate, and thereby to cause the impeller to rotate.

A securing assembly for connecting a drive assembly to a driven assembly of a catheter pump includes a motor housing, a flow diverter housing, and a flow diverter positioned within the flow diverter housing, wherein one of the flow diverter or the flow diverter housing includes a securement device. The securing assembly also includes a cap coupled between the motor housing and the flow diverter housing. The cap includes a central opening and a locking recess extending circumferentially about the central opening. Insertion of the flow diverter into the central opening causes securement device to engage the locking recess.

An artificial heart for use in a human recipient includes a housing within which a trio of turbine pump segments are operative. Two of the turbine pumps form a series connected pair for redundancy. The redundancy enhances the safety factor provided by the artificial heart. A controller is powered by a rechargeable battery and is operative to apply appropriate drive signals to the motor drives of the turbine pump segments. The battery may be implanted along with the controller to avoid the need for any external connections to the artificial heart. An inductively coupled battery charger for use outside the recipient's body is positioned proximate the battery charger to provide inductively coupled charging for use in driving the artificial heart.

The devices and methods described herein include an implantable body lumen fluid flow modulator including an upstream flow accelerator separated by a gap from a downstream flow decelerator. The gap is a pathway to entrain additional fluid from a branch lumen(s) into the fluid stream flowing from the upstream flow accelerator to the downstream flow decelerator.

An artificial heart for use in a human recipient includes a housing within which a quartet of turbine pump segments are operative. The quartet of turbine pump segments is configured to provide a pair of redundant input and output turbine pump segment pairs each input and output pair being coupled by a curved passage providing a redundancy which, in turn, enhances the safety factor provided by the artificial heart. A controller is powered by a rechargeable battery and is operative to apply appropriate drive signals to the motor drives of the turbine pump segments. The battery may be implanted along with the controller to avoid the need for any external connections to the artificial heart. An inductively coupled battery charger for use outside the recipient's body is positioned proximate the battery charger to provide inductively coupled charging for use in driving the artificial heart.