Patent ID: 7229402

Claim:
A minimally invasive technique for improving blood flow in a patient's body by removing blood directly or indirectly from a selected ventricle of the heart and then directly or indirectly infusing the blood back into the patient's circulatory system at a selected distant location, the technique comprising the steps of: installing a flexible catheter having a length, an open interior, an exposed proximate end and a distal end within the patient's left ventricle by means of a transeptal puncture of the patient's right atrium, the catheter having at least one opening along the length of the said flexible tube for admitting blood into the open interior after the catheter has been installed; providing an electrically active region having sensing, pacing and cardioversion electrodes integrated into the flexible catheter, the electrodes being positioned within the patient's right atrium; achieving atrial pacing and/or cardioversion of atrial fibrillation or atrial tachycardia by electrical conduction between the electrodes on the flexible catheter or between a selected electrode on the flexible catheter and an external cutaneous pad on the patient's body; providing a supplemental assist mechanism located externally of a patient's body and connected to the proximate end of the flexible catheter, the supplemental assist mechanism comprising a rigid housing with an inlet and an outlet and with a housing interior in communication with the flexible catheter for receiving blood from the arterial circulation, the rigid housing also having a pumping membrane located within the housing interior; connecting a flexible cannula to the outlet of the rigid housing, the cannula having a distal end with an end opening which is located within the patient's body at a selected location distant from the ventricle for reinfusing blood at the selected distant location; providing a control console having at least two independent control channels for alternately supplying vacuum and pressure to the pumping membrane, the application of vacuum to the membrane causing the membrane to collapse and causing blood to be drawn into the housing interior from the ventricle, the application of pressure to the membrane causing the membrane to inflate and act against blood in the housing interior to drive blood from the housing interior into the patient's body at the selected distant location.