Thousands of heart patients who suffer from severe left ventricular heart failure could benefit from cardiac transplantation. However, owing to a shortage of donor hearts, most of these patients face a foreshortened life span characterized by frequent hospitalizations, severe physical disability, and death from congestive failure or cardiogenic shock. If a left ventricular assist device ("LVAD") were available for chronic use, many of these patients could be returned to prolonged and productive lives.
Prior art LVADs, now in clinical trials, provide a cyclic or pulsating delivery of blood, designed to emulate the natural pulsatile blood flow through the heart. This design approach has resulted in a variety of anatomic and engineering problems. Cyclic delivery systems tend to be physically large, making implantation difficult or impossible for some patients. Cyclic delivery systems also employ artificial valves, having special material, longevity, and performance requirements. All of these characteristics make cyclic blood pumping devices both complex and expensive.
It is apparent that if the requirement of pulsatile blood flow is eliminated, the LVAD could be much smaller, simpler, and less expensive. Rotary pumps, whether of centrifugal or axial flow design, provide substantially continuous liquid flow, and potentially enjoy a number of the listed advantages over cyclic delivery systems. However, the prior art has not developed a durable rotary blood pump, owing to unique problems with the rotary pump's driveshaft seal. In a blood environment, such driveshaft seals have a short life, and contribute to a premature failure of the pump. Prior art driveshaft seals may also cause embolisms, resulting in a stroke or even death for the patient.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved rotary blood pump, by eliminating the necessity for a driveshaft seal;
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a compact, rotary blood pump using passive, magnetic radial bearings to maintain an impeller and its support shaft for rotation about an axis;
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a rotary blood pump having bi-stable operation, in which the impeller and the support shaft shuttle as a unit, between two predetermined axial positions;
It is another object of the present invention to provide blood immersed axial thrust bearings which are regularly washed by fresh blood flow to prevent thrombosis from occurring;
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a unique thick bladed pump impeller, which houses both motor magnets and radial bearing magnets, and includes narrow, deep, blood flow passages;
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a pump impeller which is effective pumping viscous liquids, such as blood, at low flow rates, and which minimizes hemolysis of the blood by using only a few pump impeller blades.