Electrical control of urinary incontinence by radio implant. A report of 14 patients

An implant to empty the bladder or close the urethra.

“…Implanted stimulators now in use for the purpose of closing the urethra to treat incontinence (Caldwell et al, 1965;Alexander and Rowan, 1968;Riddle et al, 1969;Edwards and Malvern, 1972;Stanton and Edwards, 1973) stimulate at sites where sensory as well as motor nerve fibres are present. They have been moderately but not extremely successful.…”

“…It seems fairly clear that they do Inot, at any stimulus strength that the patient can tolerate, stimulate all motor units of the striated closing muscles of the urethra. The evidence for this is that micturition is still possible during the strongest practically usable-that is, just notpainful-stimulation at 20 or 25 Hz through an implant (Alexander and Rowan, 1968;Caldwell, personal communication), although during prolonged maximal stimulation of the pudendal nerves at 24 Hz, micturition is impossible in normal subjects, and this impossibility is not due to failure to initiate contractions of the detrusor muscle (Brindley et al, 1974). Implants now in use for emptying the bladder employ electrodes either on the bladder wall (Bradley et al, 1962;Scott et al, 1965;Hald et al, 1967;Stenberg et al, 1967;Halverstadt and Parry, 1975;Merrill, 1975), or on the conus medullaris of the spinal cord (Nashold et al, 1972;Grimes and Nashold, 1974).…”

The development of reflex bladder activity following spinal cord injury in cats and a method to control it

“…Since the early 1960's, efforts have been made to control urinary incontinence by anal sphincter or pelvic floor stimulation (Caldwell, 1963;Alexander and Rowan, 1968;Merrill et al, 1975). Those described by Caldwell (1963), were directed at improving sphincteric efficiency.…”

Electronic Techniques in the Treatment of Female Urinary Incontinence

“…The first of these is defective detrusor function unassociated with "sphincteric" weakness. Alexander and Rowan (1968b) suggested that incontinence of this type might respond to stimulation as a result of reflex inhibition of the detrusor during pelvic floor contraction. However, the three patients in this category in the present series derived no benefit from electronic treatment.…”