Portable muscle stimulator with pulse width control

Abstract

A portable muscle stimulator with removable data storage card is disclosed in which the removable data storage card is secured within the power muscle stimulator on specially designed rail guides which prevent the removable data storage card from being inserted to the power muscle stimulator incorrectly and which ensure that the power muscle stimulator is secured in a removable fashion within the power muscle stimulator. The portable muscle stimulator include a multitude of safety features which are designed to prevent injury to the user while at the same time to ensure that the portable power muscle stimulator is easy to use.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates generally to portable muscle stimulators for unsupervised personal use. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of and system for providing a portable muscle stimulator with a mechanism which provides usage monitoring capability.With the increasing application of high technology to medical applications, there has been a trend in recent years to providing as much care as possible as well as sophisticated medical treatment outside of hospitals. That trend has resulted in an increase in the amount of surgery as well as other types of medical treatment, such as rehabilitation services, being performed outside of hospitals in, for example, ambulatory surgery centers or rehabilitation centers, respectively.In order to provide an even more cost effective outcome, technology is being applied to obtain the desired medical outcome with medical equipment that can be utilized in the patient's home. In addition to the ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

More particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide a powered muscle stimulator device as described above having reliable electronic circuitry and software which can be easily and safely used by an unsupervised patient.

Another object of the present invention is to provide several additional safety features which both enhance the patient usability and safety of the powered muscle stimulator invention disclosed herein. These features are designed to prevent user error and accidental use and to assure correct operation of the powered muscle stimulator itself.

Briefly described, these and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with its apparatus aspects by providing a removable data storage card which is secured within the powered muscle stimulator on specially designed guide rails which prevent the removable data storage card from being inserted into the powered muscle stimulator incorrectly. The design of the guide rails also functions to removably secure the data storage card in the correct location within the powered muscle stimulator itself. In addition, the pins on the pad cables used with the muscle stimulator are designed with a large diameter so that they cannot be plugged into a typical household 110 volt electrical outlet. In addition, the battery charger cable pin is designed such that it can only plug into the battery charger jack and not into a channel jack, which could damage the powered muscle stimulator.

In its method aspects, the powered muscle stimulator of the present invention is designed to detect if a connection between the pads, cables and the stimulator is faulty and to take appropriate action. The powered muscle stimulator of the present invention is also designed such that a channel output level can be changed only by a single digit at a time, which assures that a rapid increase or decrease in muscle contraction will not be experienced by the user during treatment if the rocker switch was continually depressed.

An additional safety and treatment feature of the powered muscle stimulator of the present invention is that the stimulus intensity regulated by the patient is the pulse width of the voltage signal which forms the output from each of the channels of the powered muscle stimulator. A ramp on / off type of stimulation is utilized such that the patient experiences a slowly increasing stimuli which is more comfortable than an abruptly changing stimuli used in prior art devices.

Problems solved by technology

However, several issues which were not concerns when the treatment services were provided to patients in an outpatient or hospital setting, quickly become concerns when patients supervise their own treatment in their own living areas.

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