Patent ID: 11957892
Assignee: ABIOMED EUROPE GMBH
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. A blood pump comprising:
a pump casing having a blood flow inlet and a blood flow outlet;
an impeller arranged in said pump casing and rotatably supported in the pump casing by at least one bearing so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation, the impeller comprising at least one blade for conveying blood from the blood flow inlet to the blood flow outlet;
a secondary blood flow inlet axially spaced from the blood flow inlet and the blood flow outlet in a main direction of flow, and
at least one secondary bearing,
wherein the at least one bearing comprises at least one stationary bearing portion coupled to the pump casing and having a stationary bearing surface that faces radially outwards, the at least one bearing further comprising a rotating bearing surface interacting with the stationary bearing surface to form the at least one bearing, wherein the rotating bearing surface faces radially inwards and is formed on a bearing structure coupled to an exposed radially inner edge of the at least one blade, and
wherein the at least one blade is associated with the blood flow inlet in order to convey blood from the blood flow inlet to the blood flow outlet in the main direction of flow, and at least another blade associated with the secondary blood flow inlet to convey blood from the secondary blood flow inlet to the blood flow outlet in a direction opposite the main direction of flow, and wherein the at least one blade and the at least another blade are arranged at axially opposing portions of the impeller adjacent an intermediate portion of the impeller.