Sacral Nerve Stimulator Modulating Colon Motility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatments for faecal incontinence, such as dietary manipulation, pharmacological drugs, and surgery, often fail to provide effective long-term solutions, leading to significant psychosocial and economic issues, and stoma creation carries complications, necessitating alternative therapeutic approaches.
Innovation Solution
An adjustable implantable sacral nerve stimulator method that measures colon motility patterns and programs electrical stimulation parameters, including charge, pulse width, pulse amplitude, and pulse frequency, to induce rhythmic retrograde motor events and rectosigmoid brakes, reducing faecal incontinence incidence through transcutaneous electrocolonography and electrode matrix placement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If dietary manipulation, pharmacological drugs, or surgery are used to treat faecal incontinence, then treatment effectiveness may be improved, but patient quality of life deteriorates due to psychosocial issues and stoma complications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical/surgical interventions (stoma creation) with a neuromodulation system that uses electrical fields to stimulate the sacral nerve, thereby treating faecal incontinence without the harmful physical alterations and psychosocial burdens of stoma surgery
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs adjustable electrical stimulation parameters (amplitude, pulse width, frequency) to optimize treatment effectiveness while avoiding adverse effects, allowing customization to individual patient responses and eliminating the need for permanent surgical modifications
2Device complexity
If fixed-parameter sacral nerve stimulation is applied, then device simplicity is maintained, but treatment adaptability to individual patient responses deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from fixed-parameter stimulation to a dynamic system where stimulation parameters can be adjusted based on measured colon motility patterns, allowing the device to adapt to individual patient responses while maintaining a relatively simple implantable structure
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where colon motility is measured and used to guide adjustment of stimulation parameters, enabling adaptive treatment that responds to actual physiological effects without requiring complex programmable logic in the implantable device
3Measurement precision
If transcutaneous electrocolonography is performed to measure colon motility, then treatment precision is improved, but measurement complexity and patient burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses transcutaneous electrodes as an intermediary to non-invasively measure colon motility patterns, providing precise physiological data without requiring implantable sensors or complex internal measurement systems within the neuromodulator
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The method effectively alleviates faecal incontinence by modulating sacral nerve stimulation to produce desired colonic motility patterns, reducing symptoms and potentially avoiding the need for stoma creation, with adjustable parameters ensuring optimal treatment based on individual patient responses.
Implementation Method 1
measuring motility patterns, in the colon of a recipient of an implantable neuromodulator, responsive to an electrical stimulus delivered by the implantable neuromodulator
Implementation Method 2
transcutaneously measuring the electrical activity of the recipient's colon, and resolving the electrical activity into electrical waves that are indicative of colonic motility
Data Source
AI summary
A method including transcutaneously measuring motility patterns, in the colon of a recipient of an implantable neuromodulator, responsive to an electrical stimulus delivered by the implantable neuromodulator, and programming the implantable neuromodulator responsive to the measured motility patterns, wherein the method comprises adjusting at least one parameter of the implantable neuromodulator that defines the electrical stimulus that the implantable neuromodulator is configured to deliver to the recipient.