Implantable microstimulator and systems employing the same

Details Implantable microstimulator and systems employing the same Implantable microstimulator and systems employing the same

1998-05-29

2000-04-18

Kamm, William E.

Surgery: light, thermal, and electrical application

Light, thermal, and electrical application

607 3, 607 48, 607116, 128899, A61N 100

Patent

active

06051017&

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Muscles serve a number of functions, most of which are dependent upon their regular contraction, which is in turn dependent upon their strength and health. For example, in addition to the well known functions of supporting the skeleton and permitting movement, muscles serve to pad the force of bone protuberances against the skin, and they promote blood flow, particularly through deep blood vessels. In response to repeated contractions against a load, muscle fibers grow in cross-sectional area and develop more force, and in response to repeated contraction over a long period of time, the oxidative capacity and blood supply of the fibers is enhanced.
In normal individuals, muscles are activated to contract by electrical signals that are communicated from the brain and spinal cord by way of muscle nerves. Many medical diseases, physical disabilities and cosmetic disfigurements arise from abnormal or absent electrical signals to the muscles. Such abnormal or absent electrical signals may be pathological or may simply be due to prolonged immobility or confinement that restricts or prevents the voluntary movement of one or more muscles. Without normal, routine electrical stimulation, muscles atrophy, that is lose their normal size and strength. Also contributing to muscle atrophy may be a wide range of other pathophysiological mechanisms, including absence of sustaining hormones and other endogenous trophic substances.
Many situations exist in which voluntary muscle contraction cannot be used effectively to operate, condition or strengthen muscles. The most extreme loss of voluntary muscle function occurs when the brain or spinal cord is injured by trauma, the growth of tumors or cerebrovascular accidents. In patients suffering from these conditions, muscles become wholly or partially paralyzed because the electrical commands that are normally generated in the nervous system are no longer available to stimulate muscle contractions. Less extreme degrees of muscle weakness and atrophy can come about when some of the nerve fibers supplying a muscle are damaged by disease or injury, or when the muscle is immobilized or voluntarily rested, for example by casting or bedrest, in order to recover from an injury or surgical intervention involving a nearby body part, or other prolonged confinement or immobilization.
With respect to prolonged physical confinement or immobilization, the affect of muscle non-use and atrophy frequently leads to two disorders that are particularly difficult to avoid and expensive to treat, pressure ulcers of the skin and subcutaneous tissues and retardation of the normal circulation of blood through deep vessels. Continual, unrelieved pressure on localized regions of skin can result in the development of pressure ulcers of the skin and subcutaneous tissues, also known as bed sores or decubitus ulcers. Pressure ulcers are thought to occur when tissues underlying a site of pressure are deprived of oxygen and nutrients because blood flow is impeded, and when the area is subjected to frictional and shearing forces associated with continuous rubbing and movement. Pressure ulcers vary in size and degree of damage from small regions of redness to deep craters of tissue erosion passing through skin, connective tissues, muscle and even bone that can threaten the life of a patient by providing portals of entry for pathogenic organisms. They are often exacerbated in chronically paralyzed or bedridden patients because of atrophy of the unused muscles that normally provide a degree of padding between the skin and underlying bony protuberances. The treatment of pressure ulcers often requires prolonged, intensive medical care and occasionally extensive surgery, usually entailing further restrictions in the posture of the patient, which may further complicate medical and nursing care and cause other complications.
As mentioned above, prolonged immobilization or physical confinement of a body part often also results in retardation of circulation of blood through deep vessels, parti

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patent: 4041955 (1977-08-01), Kelly et al.
patent: 5405367 (1995-04-01), Schulman et al.
patent: 5482008 (1996-01-01), Stafford et al.

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