This invention concerns an intravascular
blood pump for
percutaneous insertion into a patient's
blood vessel. The
blood pump comprises a pump casing (2) having a
blood flow inlet (21) and a
blood flow outlet (22), and an
impeller (3) arranged in said pump casing (2) so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation (10). The
impeller (3) has blades (31) sized and shaped for conveying blood from the
blood flow inlet (21) to the blood flow outlet (22). The
blood pump comprises a drive unit (4) for rotating the
impeller (3), the drive unit (4) comprising a plurality of posts (40) arranged about the axis of rotation (10). Each of the posts (40) has a longitudinal axis (LA) and an impeller-side end (420) pointing towards the impeller (3). A coil winding (44) is disposed around each of the posts (40) and has an impeller-side end pointing towards the impeller. The coil windings (44) are controllable so as to create a
rotating magnetic field, wherein the impeller (3) comprises a
magnetic structure (32) arranged to interact with the
rotating magnetic field so as to cause rotation of the impeller (3). The posts (40) do not extend with their impeller-side ends (420) radially over the impeller-side ends of the coil winding (44) disposed around the respective posts (40), wherein the term radially relates to the longitudinal axis (LA) of the posts (40).