Patent ID: 8007254

Claim:
An axial flow blood pump comprising: a tubular pump housing; a contactless rotor body within said housing having a rotational axis and a plurality of axially opening inlets at a leading end thereof and a plurality of axially opening outlets at a trailing end thereof, said axially opening outlets being wider than said axially opening inlets, each pair of an inlet and an outlet opening into a discrete substantially axially directed groove formed in and extending along the length of said rotor body, each of said grooves being spaced from and parallel to an adjacent groove and terminating at one of said axially opening outlets; said rotor body having a plurality of discrete peripheral radially and axially facing surface portions intermediate said grooves, each of said radially facing portions having a permanent drive magnet and an interior base width substantially narrower than its radially facing surface width along the length of said rotor body, each of said radially facing surface widths having at least one hydrodynamic bearing surface extending oblique to said rotational axis of said rotor body to assist radial stability of said rotor body when rotating; a curved off-axis portion of said grooves is between and narrower than each of the axially opening inlets and axially opening outlets such that when said rotor body rotates blood enters said inlets axially and is directed through said grooves from said axially opening inlets at said leading end of said rotor body to exit axially from said axially opening outlets at said trailing end of said rotor body.