Intravascular Pump Sheath Inlet Layout for Lower Blood Damage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing pump arrangements for use in the body's own vessels, such as those used for short-term cardiac support, require high manufacturing effort to reduce blood-damaging effects due to direct mechanical shear and shear stress fields, making minimally invasive procedures difficult.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a further inlet opening between the first and second sections of the sheath, allowing a suction effect to be created by the driving flow, which increases the total flow without direct passage through the pump, utilizing principles similar to jet pumps to minimize blood damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If all blood enters directly through the pump, then the pump can generate sufficient driving flow, but the blood-damaging effect increases due to direct mechanical shear and shear stress fields
Solution Approach 1:
The pump arrangement divides the flow path into two separate inlets: one for direct pump intake and another for suction effect intake. This segmentation allows blood to enter the flow passage through multiple routes, reducing the proportion of blood subjected to direct mechanical shear in the pump, thereby reducing overall blood damage while maintaining sufficient driving flow.
Solution Approach 2:
The flow passage acts as an intermediary between the two inlets and the outflow. By introducing blood through the suction effect inlet into the flow passage proximal to the pump, the system creates a buffer zone that reduces direct mechanical shear exposure. The flow passage mediates the mixing of directly pumped blood and suction-effect blood, reducing overall blood damage.
2Productivity
If the pump size is increased to handle more flow, then the driving flow increases, but the complexity of minimally invasive procedures increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention utilizes hydraulic principles by creating a suction effect through the driving flow to draw additional blood into the flow passage without requiring additional mechanical pumping capacity. This hydraulic suction effect increases total flow handling capability without increasing pump size, enabling minimally invasive procedures with smaller pump devices.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances the total flow without increasing the size of the pump arrangement, reducing blood damage by leveraging the suction effect and minimizing direct contact with moving parts, thus enabling minimally invasive procedures.
Implementation Method 1
a suction effect to be created by the driving flow, which increases the total flow without direct passage through the pump
Data Source
AI summary
The subject matter of the present invention is a pump arrangement, in particular for use in the body's own vessels, having a pump and a sheath receiving the pump, bounding a flow passage and having a distal intake opening and a proximal outflow opening for producing a driving flow by means of the pump, wherein the pump is arranged in a first fluid-tight section having the distal intake opening and a second fluid-tight section includes the proximal outflow opening. In accordance with the invention, a further inlet opening is present between the first section, and the second section and is arranged between the intake opening and the outflow opening, with the first section and the second section being arranged with respect to one another such that the inlet opening opens into the flow proximal to the pump.