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Journal of Long-Term Effects of Medical Implants

ISSN for PRINT: 1050-6934

Institutional price:	$1021.00
Issues per year:	6

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2002, Volume12

76 pages

Issue price - $175.00

Functional Electrical Stimulation of Bladder and Bowel in Spinal Cord Injury

Richard F. Edlich
Biomedical Engineering and Emergency Medicine, University of Virginia Health System, Trauma Specialists LLP, Legacy Verify Level I Shock Trauma Center for Pediatrics and Adults, Legacy Emanuel Hospital, Portland, OR, USA

William D. Steers, M.D.
J. Y. Gillenwater Professor of Urology; Chairman, Department of Urology. University of Virginia Health System P.O. Box 800422 Charlottesville VA 22908

Tyler C. Wind, BA
Plastic Surgical Research Program, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this collective review is to examine the use of functional electrical stimulation for incontinence. The Finetech-Brindley bladder system enhances voiding through stimulation via electrodes implanted around the ventral sacral roots. Detrusor hyperreflexia is eliminated through complete dorsal rhizotomy, which results in loss of reflex defecation and reflex erection/reflex lubrication. Consequently, a new system is being devised in which functional electrical stimulation for incontinence in spinal cord injury can be achieved without dorsal rhizotomy.