47 results about "Genioglossus muscle" patented technology

Systems, apparatus, and methods for selectively applying electrical energy to a target location within the head or neck of a patient for treating obstructive sleep disorders. A method of the present invention involves positioning an electrosurgical probe with respect to a target tissue that affects the aperture of the upper airway of the patient. For example, the position of the tongue and the radix linguae affect the upper airway. The position of the tongue is controlled by the genioglossus muscle and tendon. The tendon of the genioglossus muscle may be irreversibly shrunk by positioning an electrosurgical probe in at least close proximity to the tendon, and applying a suitable high frequency voltage to the probe in a sub-ablation mode. Controlled heating of the tendon is effected by application of the high frequency voltage to the probe, wherein the voltage is insufficient to ablate the tissue of the tendon. The controlled heating of the tendon effects contraction of collagen fibers of the tendon, whereby the tongue is advanced and/or depressed, and the aperture of the upper airway is increased.

A method and device for creating an afferent stimulus for preventing obstructive sleep apnea are disclosed. The device includes at least one electrode and a stimulator, of which at least one electrode stimulates the genioglossus muscle of a patient having obstructive sleep apnea. The electrode is capable of conducting selected electrical stimulation generated by the stimulator, and the system is capable of delivering the selected electrical stimulation during a selected time of day. The electrical stimulation is selected to maintain sufficient muscle tone of the genioglossus muscle to prevent it from obstructing the airway during sleep, preferably at a stimulus intensity low enough to avoid awakening the patient during sleep. A removable mouthpiece having a battery, at least one electrode, and a controller, and optionally a sensor, can be used for providing the stimulation.

A non-invasive, removable intraoral electrical Stimulator or Pacemaker system and method is described, for electrically-stimulating and re-establishing the tone in the upper pharyngeal dilator muscle, the genioglossus and base-of-tongue muscles, for the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) in human adults and young adults. The Stimulator system consists of an intraoral Stimulator device assembly with a rechargeable battery, an external (inductive) Recharger appliance and an external hand-held (inductive) Programmer appliance. The Stimulator device assembly is inserted into the mouth by the OSA patient before sleep time and is removed when awake or during normal activity and placed in the charging cradle of the Recharger appliance for recharging the device battery. The physician uses the hand-held Programmer appliance to determine and set the patient-specific stimulation therapy parameters in the device, at the patient's initial evaluation. The stimulation therapy is delivered either in an open loop configuration without regard to patient's respiration activity, or in a closed loop configuration synchronized to the patient's respiration detected by one or more sensors in the system.

At least one implant structure is sized and configured for implantation in, on, or near an extrinsic muscle region affecting movement and/or shape of a tongue, e.g., a genioglossus muscle. The position of the implant structure is stabilized relative to the extrinsic muscle region to maintain the tongue in a desired orientation, e.g., to maintain patency of an airway.

An electrode for placement in a human mouth for the measurement of muscle activity in the pharyngeal airway. The electrode includes at least one leg extending from a planer face so as to make electrical contact with the genioglossus muscle. The electrode permits a reduction in the number of patients requiring overnight polysomnography to prediagnose people with sleep apnea.

The present disclosure is directed to a system for the treatment of a sleep disorder through stimulation of the hypoglossal nerve or the geniohyoid muscle of a patient, e.g. a human patient. In general, the system comprises three components, namely a sensing component 50, a stimulation component 100, and a control system 200. In some embodiments, the control system 200 may be embedded within the sensing component 50, or the control system 200 may be embedded within the stimulation component 100.

Disclosed herein are various methods, systems, an apparatuses for determining appropriate situations to treat conditions such as sleep apnea. At appropriate times, treatment can be applied such as through electrical stimulation to a person (e.g., an electrical stimulation of a person's genioglossus muscle in response to detecting that the person is undergoing an obstructive sleep apnea precursor event). In exemplary embodiments, a sensor such as a microphone and/or motion sensor can be used to provide a processor with data to facilitate a determination by the processor as to whether an electrical stimulus should be applied.

An implantable tissue suspension device and its method for use. The device includes first and second filamentary elements bonded together only at a central connection region such that first and second leading and trailing legs of the respective first and second filamentary elements extend outwardly from the central connection region. The method includes implanting the device such that the central connection region extends laterally across a patient's tongue and the first and second leading and trailing legs of the first and second filamentary elements extend through the tongue such that ends thereof are positioned external to the genioglossus muscle.

The invention relates to the technical field of medical equipment, and especially relates to a sleep apnea monitoring and treatment system. The monitoring and treatment system comprises a breath airflow monitor for inducing a breath airflow, an oxyhemoglobin saturation monitor for detecting oxyhemoglobin saturation, an electrical stimulator for causing a human body genioglossus movement and receiving a submental muscle electrical signal, and calculation control equipment. The calculation control equipment is in communication connected with the breath airflow monitor and the oxyhemoglobin saturation monitor so as to collect a breath airflow signal and an oxyhemoglobin saturation signal, and the calculation control equipment is connected with the electrical stimulator so as to control the electrical stimulator to be switched between a function of causing the human body genioglossus movement and a function of receiving the submental muscle electrical signal. Therefore, the monitoring and treatment system of the invention can non-invasively and simply monitor occurrence of a sleep apnea condition, and can give treatments; and the system has high safety and applicability.

A device and method to alleviate obstructive sleep apnea and/or snoring and/or insomnia through the use of vibration. The device may be worn in one of several configurations to stimulate the hypoglossal and/or glossopharyngeal nerves, the genioglossus muscle and other muscles of the neck and throat to prevent airway obstruction during sleep. The device may also be worn as a relaxation mechanism that will help alleviate insomnia and promote general relaxation.

A system and method of installing dental implants to treat obstructed airflow via passive repositioning of the tongue. The present method includes the steps of installing one or more implants between the teeth along the mucogingival junction, such that the implants extend into the oral cavity and make contact with the undersurface of the tongue when the tongue is in a resting position. The positioning of the implants causes them to gently irritate the undersurface of the tongue, innervating the lingual nerve. Innervation of the lingual nerve causes the genioglossus to contract and repositions the tongue to a more anterior and superior position as compared to its resting position, vacating the airway and dilating the pharynx to improve airflow therethrough. Both the positioning and the size of the implants are customizable, thereby ensuring proper contact between the implants and the tongue regardless of topographical differences of patients' oral cavities.

An intraoral device (1) includes upper cooperating elements (2) adapted to cooperate with the upper jaw (4) and lower cooperating elements (3) adapted to cooperate with the lower jaw (5); a bracket (19) fixed in the cooperating elements (2,3), the bracket (19) supports a target (18) aiming at inducing mandibular advancement and attracting the tip of the tongue; the target (18) being centered, in a transverse plane, with regard to the cooperating elements (2,3). The device (1) further includes stimulating elements (17) for stimulation of the tongue muscles, preferably the genioglossus, involving reflex exploration of the stimulating elements (17) by the tongue. The device (1) may be used for relieving obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, snoring and/or other airway disorders.

A dental appliance apparatus is disclosed herein. In various aspects, the dental appliance may include a body removably attachable to one or more teeth selected from premolars and molars, and a flange extending forth from lingual portions of the body to contact a tongue at one or more locations proximate the premolars and the molars in order to cause a contraction of the genioglossus that positions the tongue anteriorly and downward toward the mandible by stimulation of the hypoglossal nerve. The dental appliance may include a connector connected to the body, and the connector may pass about buccal-labial sides of the anterior teeth. A bumper may be included on a labial side of the connector, and the bumper may contact the lips to promote pursed lips breathing. An anterior flange may extend lingually from the connector to stimulate the hypoglossal nerve proximate a tip of the tongue in order to cause contraction of the genioglossus to position the tongue anteriorly and downward toward the mandible. This Abstract is presented to meet requirements of 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b) only. This Abstract is not intended to identify key elements of the apparatus and methods disclosed herein or to delineate the scope of this disclosure.

The invention discloses an electrode measurement device based on electromyographic signals of a genioglossus muscle. The electrode measurement device comprises a low jaw support, a reference electrode and array collection electrodes arranged in two rows and at least two lines, wherein the low jaw support is used for fixing the electrodes distributed on the low jaw support, the reference electrode is arranged in the middle of the upper portion of the lower jaw support and corresponds to the middle combination portion of the two side portions of the lower jawbone of a human body, and the array collection electrodes are sequentially arranged on the two sides of the lower portion of the reference electrode and correspond to the lower jaw tongue muscles of the human body. Compared with the prior art, the multi-electrode array measurement mode is adopted, the electrodes are large in number and wide in distribution range, the space resolution is high, the resolution ratio of the electromyographic signals of the genioglossus muscle can be increased, the electrodes are made of silver wire non-woven fabric fibers, the electrical resistivity is low, the polarized electromotive force is small, and the electrode measurement device is comfortable to wear.

The invention discloses a detection device for detecting the genioglossus muscle function by means of mandible surface electromyography. The detection device comprises at least three collection electrodes for collecting surface electromyography signals, wherein the surface of each collection electrode is coated with at least one nanometer silver non-woven fabric layer. Nanometer silver fibers are adopted as the dry electrodes, the conductive paste consumption is lowered, the polarization electromotive force is small, application is more convenient and rapider, the good electromyography guiding effect can be obtained, the collected electromyography signals are more comprehensive and accurate, and the detection device can not only be applied to human body mandible surface electromyography detection and but also be used for surface electromyography detection of the other portions of the body.

The invention discloses a breathing mask with hypoglossal nerve and diaphragm muscle stimulation functions, and ventilation treatment equipment. The breathing mask comprises a mask body, a breathing state monitoring device, a hypoglossal stimulation electrode and a diaphragm muscle stimulation electrode, wherein the breathing state monitoring device is mounted at the bottom of the mask body, and the hypoglossal stimulation electrode and the diaphragm muscle stimulation electrode are connected with the breathing state monitoring device; the mask body communicates with the breathing state monitoring device through a thin tube; the breathing state monitoring device comprises a protection shell, and further comprises a sensor detection circuit, a CPU controller and a stimulation pulse circuitwhich are arranged in the protection shell; the pressure, temperature, blood oxygen saturation degree and heart rate data of a breathing air flow, introduced into the protection shell, of a wearer aredetected by the sensor detection circuit and transmitted to the CPU controller; and the CPU controller judges whether the wearer has obstructive apnea and central apnea or not, and triggers the stimulation pulse circuit to stimulate the hypoglossal nerve to contract the genioglossus muscle and stimulate the diaphragm muscle to contract.

A treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (“OSA”) of a user includes affixing a patch externally on a dermis of the user, the patch including a flexible substrate, an adhesive on a first side adapted to adhere to the dermis of the user, a processor directly coupled to the substrate, and electrodes directly coupled to the substrate. The treatment includes detecting an occurrence of OSA and activating the patch in response to the detecting, the activating including generating an electrical stimuli via the electrodes to activate the genioglossus muscle of the user.

A sleep apnea treatment device includes a buried breathing stimulation capsule for embedding in a user's lower jaw and the buried breathing stimulation capsule includes a power receiving coil and an output electrode. The power receiving coil is used for receiving a power required for the buried breathing stimulation capsule, and the output electrode is electrically connected to the power receivingcoil, and emits a predetermined voltage to a genioglossus muscle of the user to cause contraction of the genioglossus muscle.

The invention relates to the technical field of medical auxiliary instruments, and particularly relates to a chin-tongue muscle expanding support for improving a hypopnea respiratory tract. The expanding support is applied to chin-tongue muscle supporting and comprises a sleeve, a central tube and a support body, wherein the central tube penetrates through and is sleeved with the sleeve, and the support body is connected to the end of the sleeve; and a plurality of supporting arms are arranged between the sleeve and the support body and are of a foldable structure, one end of each supporting arm is connected with the sleeve and the central tube, and the other end of each supporting arm is connected with the support body. When the expanding support is contracted, the supporting arms are folded, and the support body is folded at the end of the sleeve; and when the expanding support is expanded, the sleeve pushes the supporting arms to be opened, and then the support body is expanded. The chin-tongue muscle expanding support is relatively small in size, can enter the respiratory tract of the human body from the oral cavity or the nasal cavity, is flexibly expanded in the respiratory tract, supports the chin-tongue muscle at the root of the tongue, prevents the chin-tongue muscle from drooping and blocking the respiratory tract when a patient lies flat, effectively relieves the suffocation phenomenon when the patient with the hypopnea symptom lies flat and sleeps, and basically achieves the purpose of being free of trauma compared with operative treatment.

A method of treating obstructive sleep apnea according to this disclosure may comprise: providing an implant comprising: a substantially planar central body portion having a top side and a bottom side; at least two adjustable wing portions; and at least two connecting members, each of the at least two connecting members extending from opposite sides of the central body portion, each of the at least two connecting members configured to flexibly connect each of the at least two wing portions to the central body portion on the opposite sides; forming a surgical opening to expose the genioglossus muscle; exposing a hypoglossal nerve branch at least on one side of the genioglossus for stimulation by an implant; forming at least one pocket on at least one side of the genioglossus; such that the pocket is dimensioned to mount at least one of the at least two wing portions of the device; inserting the implant device through the surgical opening such that the central body extends over the genioglossus and each of the wing portions is received in a respective at least one pocket; and securing the implant device to the muscle.