Back to results
US 7,762,941 B2Granted
Blood pump bearings with separated contact surfaces
AssigneeRobert Jarvik
InventorRobert Jarvik
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeRobert Jarvik
InventorRobert Jarvik
Estimating the term…
Rotary hydrodynamic blood pumps have been used to treat over a thousand patients. The Jarvik 2000 has supported a patient for seven years and uses blood immersed bearings washed by high flow to avoid excessive thrombus formation. This permits the pump to be very simple and small. Nonetheless, the present Jarvik 2000 bearings and all other mechanical blood immersed bearings of the prior art have a supporting structure that predisposes to thrombus adjacent to the bearings. The present invention provides a bearing structure that eliminates this predilection site for thrombus formation, and may provide indefinite thrombus free operation. The rotor of the preferred embodiment includes a tapered hub fabricated of wear resistant material supported by three posts at each end of the rotor, upon which the rotor rotates. Blood washes the unobstructed spaces between the posts to prevent the accumulation of a torus of thrombus that could enlarge excessively.
A bearing adapted to support the rotor of a blood pump for rotation comprising two or more posts extending from the periphery of a flow channel through which blood passes towards the axis of rotation of said rotor, each of said posts:
A blood immersed bearing comprised of two or more streamlined vanes extending inwardly from the wall of a housing of a blood pump through which blood flows and within which a pump rotor rotates, in which said vanes contact the rotor so as to support it for rotation about its axis and also partition the flow into at least two completely unobstructed flow channels.
A axial flow blood pump bearing system to support a rotor having two oppositely tapered hub surfaces and a pump impeller supported there between, said rotor constrained to permit only rotation by contact directly upon a plurality of separated rotor support posts each of which contacts one of said tapered surfaces of the rotor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.