106 results about "Facial nerve" patented technology

Described herein are devices, systems and method for treating inflammatory disorders by modulating a subject's inflammatory reflex. The method may include the step of non-invasively stimulating the inflammatory reflex (e.g., the vagus nerve, the splenic nerve, the hepatic nerve, the facial nerve, and the trigeminal nerve) of a subject in a manner which significantly reduces proinflammatory cytokines in the subject and/or provides a therapeutically effective treatment for the subject. Devices for non-invasively stimulating the inflammatory reflex may include a movable tip or actuator that is controlled to mechanically stimulate the ear. The devices may be hand-held or wearable, and may stimulate the cymba conchae region of the subject's ear.

Stimulation of the facial nerve system (e.g., electrically, electromagnetically, etc.) in ischemic stroke patients will cause dilation of occluded arteries and dilation of surrounding arteries, allowing for blood flow to circumvent the obstruction and reach previously-deprived tissue. The device approaches the facial nerve and its branches in the vicinity of the ear. In use, the device can be inserted into the ear canal and/or placed in proximity to the ear in order to stimulate the facial nerve system non-invasively (e.g., using an electromagnetic field). The device can be used in the emergency treatment of acute stroke or chronically variations for long-term maintenance of blood flow to the brain and stroke prevention. Additional embodiments of the device may be adapted for use on different regions of the body.

Stimulation of the facial nerve system (e.g., electrically, electromagnetically, etc.) in stroke patients will cause dilation of occluded arteries and dilation of surrounding arteries, allowing for blood flow to circumvent the obstruction and reach previously-deprived tissue. The device approaches the facial nerve and its branches in the vicinity of the ear. In use, the device can be inserted into the ear canal or placed in proximity to the ear in order to stimulate the facial nerve system without puncturing the tympanic membrane (e.g., using an electromagnetic field). The device can also be advanced into the middle ear through a puncture created in the tympanic membrane. Branches of the facial nerve in the middle ear can then be stimulated directly (e.g., by application of electrical current). The device can be used in the emergency treatment of acute stroke or as chronically-implanted/inserted variations for long-term maintenance of blood flow to the brain and stroke prevention

Devices, systems and methods for stimulating (e.g., noninvasively) a subject's inflammatory reflex are provided to reduce bleed time. The method may include the step of non-invasively stimulating the inflammatory reflex (e.g., the vagus nerve, the splenic nerve, the hepatic nerve, the facial nerve, and the trigeminal nerve) of a subject, such as by mechanical stimulation, in a manner which significantly reduces bleed time in the subject. Devices for non-invasively stimulating the inflammatory reflex may include a movable tip or actuator that is controlled to mechanically stimulate the ear. The devices may be hand-held or wearable, and may stimulate the cymba conchae region of the subject's ear.

The invention discloses a method for preparing a collagen material for repairing peripheral nerve injury. The method comprises the following step: co-incubating a ciliary neurotrophic factor with a collagen binding domain (CBD-CNTF), a basic fibroblast growth factor with a collagen binding domain (CBD-bFGF) and an orderly collagen material to obtain a collagen material for repairing the peripheral nerve injury. According to the preparation method, two factors CBD-CNTF and CBD-bFGF are simultaneously crosslinked to the orderly collagen scaffold material, and the action of the double-factor peripheral nerve injury repairing collagen material in long-cross-section nerve injury repairing can be evaluated by establishing an animal peripheral nerve-facial nerve long cross-section injury model. Results prove that compared with single factor CBD-CNTF or CBD-bFGF functional collagen scaffold material, the double-factor peripheral nerve injury repairing collagen material can be used for better promoting regeneration of facial nerves and restoration of functions, and has a more important realistic guiding magnificence to application of clinical peripheral nerve injury repairing in the future.

The invention pertains to the Chinese medicine field and relates to a plaster of external use for curing facial palsy and a preparation method thereof. The plaster of the invention is made from 27 Chinese medicinal herbs such as giant typhonium rhizome, seed of nuxvomica poison nut, stiff silkworm, unprocessed Sichuan aconite root, unprocessed kusnezoff monkshood root, saffron, divaricate saposhnikovia root, croton seed, peach seed, medicinal cyathula root, etc. The plaster of the invention is made based on a secret recipe handed down from generation to generation of the inventor and combines clinical experiences over the years after repeated experiments; therefore, the plaster has special curative effect to obstinate facial paralysis. The combination method of the invention is properly, precisely and uniquely prepared. By adopting the plaster of the invention, the diseases such as slanting eyes and mouth caused by the facial paralysis, facial spasm, etc. can be fast cured with short curing course, high cure rate and low cost. The plaster of the invention also has specific effect on rheumatoid arthritis, lumbocrural pain, trigeminal neuralgia and parotitis.

An apparatus for monitoring the activity of a surgeon. At least one wireless sensing unit is provided for monitoring potential damage to a nerve and is located at a first location of a body being operated on by a surgeon. The wireless sensing unit senses a change in the body at the first location resulting from potential damage to the nerve occurring at a second location of the body remote from the first location. The wireless sensing unit produces a wireless sensed change output signal indicative of the change in the body which is received by a receiver and generates a corresponding received output signal. An analyzer unit receives and analyzes the received output signal to determine the change in the body. An indicator responsive to the output of said analyzer unit indicates the change in the body to indicate the potential damage to the nerve the surgeon.

A facial lift device to be placed behind the lips and above the gums disposed alongside the buccal and facial surface of a living human maxilla or a human mandible no further than the most posterior tooth of one side to the most posterior tooth of the opposite side of said maxilla or mandible. The facial device embodies an outward lifting force when placed within the human mouth under the lips and alongside the anterior vestibule centered on the frenulum, such that when said facial lift device is forced behind the maxilla or mandible lips, the facial lift will forcibly lift out the dermal layer reducing and removing lower facial wrinkles within the perioral region.

The invention relates to a sleeping pillow and a noon break pillow enabling facial nerve, trigeminal ganglion and auricle to be free from squeezing. The sleeping pillow is characterized in that the sleeping pillow is divided into a left side sleeping prostrate sleeping zone, a prostrate sleeping zone and a right side sleeping prostrate sleeping zone; concave surfaces are formed in the left side sleeping prostrate sleeping zone and the right side sleeping prostrate sleeping zone in positions adjacent to the prostrate sleeping zone; the height of the concave surface is not smaller than the distance from the brow ridge to the bottom side of the chin of a user and is mot larger than the length of the face of the user; the width of the concave surface is not smaller the distance between two side auricles of the user; the width of the prostrate sleeping is not larger than the distance between two side sulcus auriculae posteriors of the user; the afterbrain of the head of the user is in the prostrate sleeping zone, so that prostrate sleeping state is formed; the area of the head of the user, which is not pressed on the pillow, is on the concave surfaces, so that side sleeping or prostrate sleeping is formed. The pillow ensures that the facial skin, the muscle, the nerve, the eyes and the ears of the user are not squeezed during sleeping, so that the face of the user can not produce wrinkle because the face is not squeezed during sleeping, facial senility is delayed, and the eyesight, the hearing, the facial nerve and the trigeminal ganglion of the user are protected.

A system and method of treating hyperactivity of an eyelid closing muscle in a subject after facial nerve paralysis includes providing a stimulation system and selectively stimulating eyelid opening muscle(s) or innervating nerves, eyelid opening reflexes, or eyelid opening reflexes in non-muscular tissue, using the stimulation system, without substantially activating the eyelid closing muscle. The system and method evokes eyelid movement in the subject.

The invention provides a facial nerve/muscle rehabilitation monitoring and guidance device and system, and a method for generating information for guiding a user to perform facial nerve/muscle rehabilitation exercise. After a face identification module performs identification on a face of the user, a face image shooting apparatus takes a picture of the face of the user; a face comparison module performs left and right symmetry degree comparison on the face picture of the user and quantifies the degree of symmetry; and a processer, after obtaining the quantified degree of symmetry, operates a query module to query first information conforming to a symmetry degree condition from a storage apparatus and converting the first information into visual information which can be output so as to be output through an information output apparatus. According to the invention, determining subjectivity of facial nerve/muscle rehabilitation conditions is avoided, the user can detect his own rehabilitation condition in real time, too much reliance on medical care personnel is unnecessary, the medical care cost of the user is decreased, and the work pressure of the medical care personnel is also mitigated.

The embodiment of the invention discloses a wearable electrical stimulator. The wearable electrical stimulator comprises an upper cover, a lower cover, a power supply device, a control device, a calming electrode tab and an exciting electrode tab; the upper cover is connected with the lower cover to encapsulate the power supply device and the control device which are electrically connected; the control device is used for selecting signals and outputting current shift signals according to the mode, and generating calming impulse signals or exciting impulse signals; the calming electrode tab isused for applying the calming impulse signals to a human body through the cervical nerve; and the exciting electrode tab is used for applying the exciting impulse signals to the human body through thetemporal branch of the facial nerve and the right trigeminal nerve. According to the wearable electrical stimulator, for the first time, two different working modes of calm nerves and excitatory nerves are integrated into a wearable device, so that a user can configure the corresponding electrode tab, treatment mode and treatment intensity according to his/her own condition, so that the needs ofpersonalized treatment for the user is met, both calming function and enhancing nerve excitability function are achieved.

The invention relates to facial stimulation apparatus configured to be worn in a generally horizontal orientation on a user's head, and which uses the ear (14) as an anatomical reference to ensure correct and repeatable placement of skin electrodes (16a,16b) overlying the human facial nerves (1-5) to facilitate Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS). The apparatus is provided with a headband (22) having a bend or inclination (24) proximate a distal portion (20) thereof on which the electrodes (16a,16b) are attached. The apparatus is provided with an unambiguous location feature such that a vector component between said location feature and the electrode pair (16a, 16b) is fixed and non-adjustable thus ensuring repeatable and accurate positioning of each electrode (16a, 16b). The apparatus overcomes problems inherent in known devices and, in particular, requires no anatomical knowledge on the part of the end user for its safe and most effective placement.

The invention provides a vibration massage mask. The vibration massage mask comprises a mask body, wherein the mask body is provided with a signal receiving device and a vibration device. When in use,an external audio playing device works to generate an electric audio signal, the signal receiving device receives the electric audio signal and transmits the electric audio signal to the vibration device, and the vibration device converts the electric audio signal into mechanical vibration to act on the face of a user so that the functions of activating facial cells, relaxing facial nerves, promoting the absorption of nutrient substances from the mask body, tightening the skin and the like can be realized.

The invention discloses a facial tissue detacher with a facial nerve protection function, and relates to the technical field of skin detaching. The detacher comprises tong handles which are hinged toeach other, an angle-adjustable miniature camera is hinged to the hinged ends, the control end of the miniature camera is installed at one sides of handheld holding rings, facial nerve pictures in thefacial tissue detaching process are taken, and a first spherical detaching head and a second spherical detaching head are installed at the working end, the first detaching head and the connected working end are of a hollow structure, and condensed gas or liquid is injected in the operation process for condensation and bleeding stopping; the interior of the second detaching head is equally dividedinto a drug slow release cavity and a negative pressure suction cavity, slow-release drugs are injected into the drug slow release cavity through an installed valve, and the negative pressure suctioncavity conducts negative-pressure suction of waste liquid. According to the facial tissue detacher, through the design of the spherical head shape of the working end, the facial nerves are preventedfrom being injured; meanwhile, the detacher has an auxiliary function, detaching of the facial tissue is facilitated, the structural design is reasonable, the operation is efficient and quick, and thedetacher is suitable for application and popularization.

The invention relates to the technical field of computer vision, in particular to a facial nerve paralysis detection system in a desensitization state based on thermal imaging and a depth map. The system comprises a facial acquisition module, a facial correction module, a symmetry axis division module and a facial anomaly detection module which are connected in sequence, the problems that the detection result error is large and data desensitization cannot be realized due to division of a facial symmetry axis by an existing facial anomaly detection system are solved. According to the invention,data desensitization is realized by collecting the thermodynamic image and the depth image of the patient, and meanwhile, in a data desensitization state, sensitive information of the face of the user is further protected by utilizing the sparse depth value of the tile, so that the user experience is improved; besides, through face correction and symmetry axis division of each row of tiles, errors caused by face deflection and face symmetry axis division are greatly reduced, and the accuracy and reliability of a detection result are improved.

Disclosed herein is a method of treating a disease, comprising: (a) implanting an array of electrodes on one or more targeted nerves and/or targeted muscles; and (b) treating the disease by selectively stimulating the one or more targeted nerves and/or targeted muscles through electrical pulses delivered from the array. Also disclosed herein is a device, comprising a plurality of electrodes that have the capacity to be inserted in a facial nerve. Further disclosed herein is a method of treating facial paralysis and/or damage in a subject, comprising: (a) detecting the level of contraction of individual muscles on a healthy, non-paralyzed side of the face of the subject; and (b) treating facial paralysis by a direct targeted stimulation of the corresponding muscles or nerve fibers on a paralyzed side of the face of the subject. Also disclosed herein is a method of treating synkinesis, comprising: (a) implanting an array of electrodes on one or more targeted nerves and/or targeted muscles; and (b) selectively suppressing the one or more targeted nerves and/or targeted muscles through electrical pulses delivered from the array.

The invention discloses a decoupling divide-and-conquer facial nerve segmentation method and device, and the method comprises the steps: constructing a facial nerve segmentation model which comprises a feature extraction module, a coarse segmentation module and a fine segmentation module for the features of small facial nerve structure and low contrast; on the basis that the feature extraction module is used for extracting low-level features and a plurality of different levels of advanced features, using the coarse segmentation module for carrying out global search and fusion of facial nerve features on the different levels of advanced features, and then using the fine segmentation module for decoupling the fused features to obtain center main features; after edge detail features are obtained by integrating the center main features and the low-level features, performing space attention mechanism feature extraction on the center main features and the edge detail features to obtain a facial nerve segmentation map. The method improves the automatic segmentation precision and speed of facial nerves, and satisfies the requirement for path planning before robot artificial cochlea implantation.

The invention discloses a facial paralysis detection method based on visual perception and audio information. The problem that detection and diagnosis of facial nerve paralysis diseases cannot be rapidly simplified is solved. The method comprises the following steps: collecting RGB and Depth images; obtaining an RGB image I1 and a depth image I2 of the face area; obtaining 2D key points and 3D keypoints of the face; guiding a to-be-tested person to read characters; specifying a characteristic value reflecting mouth movement to obtain a characteristic sequence of the mouth movement; collectingaudio information, performing framing and windowing operation, extracting a Mel-frequency cepstrum coefficient of each frame, and correcting a mouth motion sequence; performing feature extraction onthe corrected mouth motion sequence Cnew to obtain a motion similarity index S; analyzing the frequency distribution of the audio to obtain a speaking clearness degree D; and integrating S and D to obtain a facial paralysis detection result. According to the technology, the characteristic sequence of mouth movement is corrected by using the audio information, so that the accuracy is higher.

The invention provides a facial nerve/muscle rehabilitation exercise remote management. After a face recognition module recognizes the face of a user, a face image shooting device shoots the face of the user and sends a photo to a server connected remotely; the server inquires first information meeting the symmetry degree condition from a storage device according to the quantized symmetry degree of the face photo and outputs the first information through an information output device of a first use terminal. The subjectivity of faceplate nerve/muscle rehabilitation condition judgment is avoided, the user can actually detect the own rehabilitation condition by himself, a medical worker can remotely guide the user in real time, and cost of seeking medical advice is saved for the user.