Surgery: light – thermal – and electrical application – Light – thermal – and electrical application – Electrical therapeutic systems
Patent
1995-08-18
1997-07-22
Jastrzab, Jeffrey R.
Surgery: light, thermal, and electrical application
Light, thermal, and electrical application
Electrical therapeutic systems
607 67, 607 72, 607116, 607137, A61N 136
Patent
active
056499701
ABSTRACT:
An electrode array for implantation in volume-conductive media, such as living tissue, includes at least two closely spaced metal contacts, with arbitrary shapes, having large enough surface areas to preclude one or both from acting as a "point source." Through proper control of the shape of the contacts, and the impedance ratio between the metal-electrolyte interface and the intervening volume-conductive media, achieved through use of appropriate materials for the metal contacts in combination with electronic adjustment of the voltage pulse applied between the contacts, desirable "edge-effect" fields are created that better control and manage the distribution of the resulting stimulation current flowing between the contacts. Such control of the stimulation current distribution allows a given electrode array to be electronically tuned to better stimulate specific neurons found within the tissue. One embodiment of the electrode array includes a plurality of single, relatively small, contacts, each having its own lead attached thereto, that lie in close proximity to a highly elongated contact, having a single lead attached thereto. When an electrical potential pulse is applied between a given one of the small contacts and the elongate contact, most of the current flow through the elongated contact occurs in a small region on its surface immediately adjacent to the nearby contact. In such embodiment, N perpendicular bipolar fields are thus created using only N+1 leads.
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Medical and Biological Engineering, vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 131-135, 607/116. Jan. 1974.
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Loeb Gerald E.
Ruddy Helen
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