An unloading blood pump includes a casing suitable for being incorporated into a human body, a turbine rotated by a rotor, a pumping chamber body mounted in a casing housing the turbine, an inlet port for sucking the blood from a suction cannula to the pumping chamber body and an outlet port for expelling blood from the pumping chamber to a reinjection cannula, wherein the pump is configured, depending on its power supply, to allow a nominal constant continuous flow of between 0.05 L/min and 0.5 L/min in order to reduce a capillary pressure of the lungs and/or of the left atrium and/or of the left ventricle.

A device to assist the performance of a heart with at least one pump that is formed as a rotary pump and driven via a magneto coupling.

Some embodiments of percutaneous ventricular assist devices have a two-part design that includes a housing component and a separately deployable rotatable inner catheter component. The housing component can include an expandable pump housing. The inner catheter can include an expandable pump impeller and an associated flexible drive shaft. The drive shaft can be coupled to a motor located external to the patient. The motor can rotate the drive shaft to spin the pump impeller inside of the pump housing, causing blood to be pumped within the patient. In some embodiments, the pump impeller is inflatable or self-expandable. The two-part percutaneous ventricular assist devices with inflatable or self-expandable pump impellers are designed to have very small delivery profiles. Accordingly, various deployment modalities, including radial artery deployment, are practicable using the two-part percutaneous ventricular assist devices described herein.

A blood pump comprises a pump casing having a blood flow inlet and a blood flow outlet, and an impeller arranged in said pump casing so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation. The impeller has blades sized and shaped for conveying blood from the blood flow inlet to the blood flow outlet. The blood pump also has an outflow cannula having an upstream end portion, a downstream end portion and an intermediate portion extending between the upstream end portion and the downstream end portion. The upstream end portion of the outflow cannula is connected to the pump casing such that blood is conveyed from the blood flow outlet of the pump casing into and through the intermediate portion of the outflow cannula towards the downstream end portion of the outflow cannula, wherein the downstream end portion has a blood flow outlet through which blood can exit the outflow cannula. At least a portion of the intermediate portion of the outflow cannula has an outer diameter that is larger than an outer diameter of the pump casing.

A blood pump comprises a pump casing having a blood flow inlet and a blood flow outlet, and an impeller arranged in said pump casing so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation. The impeller has blades sized and shaped for conveying blood from the blood flow inlet to the blood flow outlet. The blood pump also has an outflow cannula having an upstream end portion, a downstream end portion and an intermediate portion extending between the upstream end portion and the downstream end portion. The upstream end portion of the outflow cannula is connected to the pump casing such that blood is conveyed from the blood flow outlet of the pump casing into and through the intermediate portion of the outflow cannula towards the downstream end portion of the outflow cannula, wherein the downstream end portion has a blood flow outlet through which blood can exit the outflow cannula. At least a portion of the intermediate portion of the outflow cannula has an outer diameter that is larger than an outer diameter of the pump casing.

The disclosure relates to devices and methods for the treatment of edema using a purge-free system. The invention provides devices and methods useful for treating edema by means of an indwelling catheter that is placed in a blood vessel of a patient and used to pump blood to cause a decrease in pressure at an outlet of a lymphatic duct. The catheter pumps blood by means of an impeller but is purge-free in that the catheter does not include a system for purging or flushing catheter components with a purge fluid. The purge-free catheter avoids blood-related mechanical complications such as clotting or thrombosis by means of an impermeable sleeve or shroud that protects moving parts of the impeller drive system.

Apparatus and methods are described including a blood pump that includes an impeller that has proximal and distal bushings, and is configured to pump blood through a subject's body. A frame, which includes proximal and distal bearings, is disposed around the impeller. An axial shaft passes through the proximal and distal bearings of the frame and the proximal and distal bushings of the impeller. The axial shaft is coupled to at least one of the proximal and distal bushings of the impeller, such that the at least one bushing is held in an axially-fixed position with respect to the axial shaft, and is not held in an axially-fixed position with respect to the proximal and distal bearings. Other applications are also described.

Apparatus and methods are described including a blood pump that includes an impeller that has proximal and distal bushings, and is configured to pump blood through a subject's body. A frame, which includes proximal and distal bearings, is disposed around the impeller. An axial shaft passes through the proximal and distal bearings of the frame and the proximal and distal bushings of the impeller. The axial shaft is coupled to at least one of the proximal and distal bushings of the impeller, such that the at least one bushing is held in an axially-fixed position with respect to the axial shaft, and is not held in an axially-fixed position with respect to the proximal and distal bearings. Other applications are also described.

Several embodiments of a catheter are described, having a balloon configured to slowly inflate and then quickly deflate to create an area of low pressure in the vessels. The balloon can be cycled near the vessels of the kidneys, thereby helping to draw out blood from the kidneys and enhance fluid processing to the bladder.

Various systems and methods are provided for reducing pressure at an outflow of a duct such as the thoracic duct or the lymphatic duct. In one embodiment, an indwelling catheter can be configured to be at least partially implanted within a vein of a patient in the vicinity of an outflow port of a duct of the lymphatic system. The catheter can include first and second restrictors each configured to at least partially occlude the vein within which the catheter is implanted and thus to restrict fluid flow within the vein when the restrictors are activated. The restrictors can each be configured to move between an activated configuration, in which the restrictor occludes the vein, and a relaxed configuration, in which the restrictor does not occlude the vein. The catheter can include a pump, such as an axial motor pump, configured to pump fluid through the catheter.