Electrodes for transcutaneous (surface) electrical stimulation

Abstract

In therapeutic and functional applications transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TES) is still the most frequently applied technique for muscle and nerve activation despite the huge efforts made to improve implantable technologies. Stimulation electrodes play the important role in interfacing the tissue with the stimulation unit. Between the electrode and the excitable tissue there are a number of obstacles in form of tissue resistivities and permittivities that can only be circumvented by magnetic fields but not by electric fields and currents. However, the generation of magnetic fields needed for the activation of excitable tissues in the human body requires large and bulky equipment. TES devices on the other hand can be built cheap, small and light weight. The weak part in TES is the electrode that cannot be brought close enough to the excitable tissue and has to fulfill a number of requirements to be able to act as efficient as possible. The present review article summarizes the most important factors that influence efficient TES, presents and discusses currently used electrode materials, designs and configurations, and points out findings that have been obtained through modeling, simulation and testing

Patient tolerance of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) in the presence of orthopaedic implants

“…The activation of skin surface sensory receptors is essentially unavoidable but can be minimized through the use of advanced skin surface electrodes, correct electrode placement and stimulation waveforms known to be comfortable [20,21]. The VAS scores in this study were used to assess the overall comfort of orthopaedic patients with and without NMES.…”

On the importance of electrode parameters for shaping electric field patterns generated by tDCS

“…However, nickel or carbonloaded silicone rubber electrodes originally designed for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) are usually adopted for tDCS. These electrodes normally have low conductivities to improve the homogeneity of the current flow underneath their surface (Keller and Kuhn, 2008;Nolan, 1991). In the simulations, rubber layer conductivities of 0.1 S/m, 10 S/m and 100 S/m were tested, to cover the range from poorly to well conductive.…”

Technical Embroidery for Smart Textiles: Review

“…One layer with electrodes manufactured with plasma coated metallized yarn contacted the skin. The second layer had an electrode wiring, but the structure of the multi-layer electrode was specifically developed to exclude short circuit (20). Another example of structural and dimensional variations in the design of embroidered electrodes for electrical stimulation is a miniaturized meander-shape electrode developed at ITA, RWTH Aachen (Fig.…”