| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20090012552 | Surgical Tool for Coring Precise Holes and Providing for Retrieval of Tissue - A tool for coring a hole in a portion of a patient's body. A cylindrical sheath includes a hollow bore open at both ends. A shaft is axially movable back and forth within the bore. A blade assembly is attached to one end of the shaft. The blade assembly comprises a hollow open cup portion having a closed end and a cutting edge formed around the margin of the open end. An interface is attached to the sheath which is shaped and dimensioned to communicate with a connector used to connect a medical device to a patient's body. | 01-08-2009 |
| 20090030444 | Surgical tool - A tunneling device for creating a pathway in subcutaneous tissue of a person's body. The tunneling device includes a member having two ends, where each of the ends defines an insertion surface that facilitates the insertion of the ends into the subcutaneous tissue of the person's body. The tunneling device includes an interchangeable handle connectable to each of the ends. The handle defines a grasping surface and an opening. The opening is configured to receive either of the ends. The grasping surface enables a user to securely hold the handle with one hand to forcibly move the member through the subcutaneous tissue of the person's body to create the pathway in the subcutaneous tissue, and pull a cable of an implant device through the created pathway. | 01-29-2009 |
| 20090112312 | Intravascular ventricular assist device - One aspect of an intravascular ventricular assist device is an implantable blood pump where the pump includes a housing defining a bore having an axis, one or more rotors disposed within the bore, each rotor including a plurality of magnetic poles, and one or more stators surrounding the bore for providing a magnetic field within the bore to induce rotation of each of the one or more rotors. Another aspect of the invention includes methods of providing cardiac assistance to a mammalian subject as, for example, a human. Further aspects of the invention include rotor bodies having helical channels formed longitudinally along the length of the body of the rotor where each helical channel is formed between peripheral support surface areas facing radially outwardly and extending generally in circumferential directions around the rotational axis of the rotor. | 04-30-2009 |
| 20090171136 | VAD connector plug - A plug which may be positioned in place of a Ventricular Assist Device (“VAD”) within a VAD connector mounted to the heart. The VAD connector may have at least one VAD-engaging feature and may define an opening. The plug may have a body adapted to fill the opening of the VAD connector and may engage the VAD connector. The plug may be installed in place of a VAD when the heart heals, and then removed and replaced by a VAD if the patient's condition deteriorates. | 07-02-2009 |
| 20090203957 | Ventricular assist device for intraventricular placement - A ventricular assist device includes a pump such as an axial flow pump, an outflow cannula connected to the outlet of the pump, and an anchor element. The anchor element is physically connected to the pump, as by an elongate element. The pump is implanted within the left ventricle with the outflow cannula projecting through the aortic valve but desirably terminating short of the aortic arch. The anchor element is fixed to the wall of the heart near the apex of the heart so that the anchor element holds the pump and outflow cannula in position. | 08-13-2009 |
| 20090204205 | Platinum-cobalt-boron blood pump element - A magnetic impeller for a blood pump such as a magnetically driven, rotary ventricular assist device for pumping blood of a patient, the impeller comprising a magnetic alloy including platinum, cobalt, and boron. | 08-13-2009 |
| 20100069847 | Axial Flow-Pump With Multi-Grooved Rotor - An axial-flow blood pump for pumping blood includes a substantially cylindrical outer enclosure. A tubular housing concentric with and located within the outer enclosure has at one end an inlet and at an opposite end an outlet. A motor stator is concentric with and located between the outer enclosure and the tubular housing. An impeller is concentric with and located within the tubular housing. The impeller is suspended in operation by a combination of passive magnetic forces between magnets within the impeller or magnetized regions of the impeller and the motor stator and hydrodynamic thrust forces generated as blood flows between the tubular housing and a plurality of hydrodynamic thrust bearing surfaces located on the impeller. A volute may be in fluid-tight connection with the outlet of the tubular housing for receiving blood in the axial direction and directing blood in a direction normal to the axial direction. The volute has a flow-improving member extending axially from the volute and into and coaxially with the tubular housing. | 03-18-2010 |