IMPLANTABLE ELECTRIC AXIAL-FLOW BLOOD PUMP WITH BLOOD-COOLEDBEARING

摘要

An axial-flow blood pump (10) has a rotor (20) suspended in ball-and-cup bearings (38, 34) which are blood-cooled but not actively blood-lubricated. The ball-and-cup structures are made of highly heat-conductive material and are in heat-transferring contact with heat-conductive stator blades (30) that serve as heat sinks for the bearings. The ball-and-cup structures are radially much smaller than the stator blades. The ball-to-cup interface has so small a gap that the ball-to-cup structures present an essentially continuous surface to the blood flow.