Catheter blood pumps with pressure sensors and related methods of determining positioning

A housing assembly for a catheter blood pump, comprising:

• a housing;
• a flush-fluid inlet connector coupled to the housing and being externally accessible;
• a flush-fluid outlet connector coupled to the housing and being externally accessible;
• a power and motor-control signal connector coupled to the housing and being externally accessible;
• a first fiberoptic pressure sensor connector coupled to the housing and being externally accessible;
• a second fiberoptic pressure sensor connector coupled to the housing and being externally accessible;
• and
• a multi-lumen catheter having a proximal end portion held inside the housing, wherein the multi-lumen catheter comprises inflow and outflow lumens, the inflow lumen in fluid communication with the flush-fluid inlet connector and the outflow lumen in fluid communication with the flush-fluid outlet connector.

A method of placing a catheter blood pump, comprising:

• providing a catheter blood pump system with a catheter blood pump having first and second fiberoptic pressures sensors, an inlet cage, and an impeller with an impeller cage, wherein the first and second fiberoptic pressure sensors comprise sensor heads with a respective MOMS structure held inside a sleeve with an annular open channel free of adhesive;
• without the use of image-guided surgery, inserting the catheter blood pump intravascularly to place the inlet cage in a first location in a heart of a patient with the impeller cage in a longitudinally spaced apart second location in the heart of the patient;
• concurrently successively obtaining a first pressure (P1) measurement from the first fiberoptic pressure sensor and a second pressure (P2) measurement from the second fiberoptic pressure sensor during the insertion;
• monitoring the first and second pressure measurements over time;
• and
• electronically identifying a correct placement of the inlet cage and the impeller cage when a defined pressure differential (PD) corresponding to a difference in P1 and P2 occurs.