Blood pump

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10363350-B2
Application number	US-201816022445-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 28, 2018
Priority date	Mar 13, 2013
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

Apparatus and methods are described including identifying a subject as suffering from cardiac dysfunction, congestive heart failure, reduced renal blood flow, increased renal vascular resistance, arterial hypertension, and/or kidney dysfunction, and, in response thereto, reducing blood pressure within a renal vein of the subject, by activating at least one impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into a vena cava of the subject, by the impeller rotating.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
measuring central venous pressure of a subject;
at least partially based upon the measured central venous pressure, designating a target renal venous pressure that is lower than the measured central venous pressure; and
in response thereto, driving at least one impeller to pump blood from a renal vein of the subject into a vena cava of the subject, such as to reduce the subject's renal venous pressure toward the target renal venous pressure.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein driving the impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava comprises enhancing a rate of blood flow from the renal vein into the vena cava, without causing a substantial change in a direction of the blood flow relative to a direction of blood flow from the renal vein into the vena cava in an absence of driving the impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein driving the impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava comprises driving the impeller to pump blood from the renal vein directly into a portion of the vena cava that is adjacent to the renal vein.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein driving the impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava comprises driving the impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava, without removing blood from a venous system of the subject into a non-venous receptacle.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
using one or more sensors, measuring pressure within the subject's veins at a first location that is upstream of the impeller, and at a second location that is downstream of the impeller; and
controlling rotation of the impeller responsively to the pressure measured at the first and second locations.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
using one or more sensors, measuring flow through the subject's renal vein; and
controlling rotation of the impeller responsively to the measured flow.

7. The method according to 6 , wherein measuring flow through the subject's renal vein comprises measuring flow using a thermal flow sensor that is disposed within a housing, the housing being configured such that blood flow through the housing is substantially in a direction parallel to a local longitudinal axis of the renal vein.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein driving the at least one impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava comprises driving the at least one impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava while the impeller is disposed within a cage that is configured to separate an inner wall of a vein of the subject in which the impeller is placed from the impeller.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein driving the at least one impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava while the impeller is disposed within the cage comprises driving the at least one impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava while the impeller is disposed within the cage, the cage and the impeller being engaged with respect to one another by an engagement mechanism, such that in response to the cage becoming radially compressed, the impeller becomes axially elongated such that the cage maintains a separation between the wall of the vein and the impeller.

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein driving the at least one impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava while the impeller is disposed within the cage comprises driving the at least one impeller to pump blood from the renal vein into the vena cava while the impeller is disposed within the cage, and while the cage is maintained in a rotationally fixed position.

11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the cage includes struts that are shaped to define cells, the method further comprising radially expanding the cage such as to separate the inner wall of the vein from the impeller even if the inner wall protrudes through a cell of the cage.

12. The method according to claim 8 ,
wherein the vein in which the impeller is placed has a given diameter in an absence of the cage;
the method further comprising:
widening a portion of the vein in which the impeller is placed such that a diameter of the portion of the vein in which the impeller is placed is greater than the given diameter, by radially expanding the cage comprises; and
radially expanding the impeller such that a span of the impeller is at least equal to the given diameter.

13. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising placing the impeller and the cage inside a body of the subject, while the cage and impeller are in radially-constrained configurations thereof, and deploying the cage and the impeller and the cage inside the subject's body by causing the impeller and the cage to assume non-radially-constrained configurations in which the impeller and the cage are radially expanded relative to their respective radially constrained configurations.

Assignees

• Magenta Medical Ltd

Inventors

• Schwammenthal Ehud
• Tuval Yosi
• Glozman Daniel

Classifications

• A61M2210/1082

  Kidney · CPC title

• A61M2207/00

  Methods of manufacture, assembly or production · CPC title

• A61M2210/12

  Blood circulatory system · CPC title

• A61B5/02055

  Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature · CPC title

• A61M1/1034

  Human Necessities · mapped topic