What is this medical procedure called...?!
Question: They inserted something into her spine to shock her nerve into working. There is a little box thing that she keeps at her waist too. What is it called? When is it used (it's to shock her bladder)?
Answers: They inserted something into her spine to shock her nerve into working. There is a little box thing that she keeps at her waist too. What is it called? When is it used (it's to shock her bladder)?
Interesting question. Thank you for bringing this up to my attention. I appreciate the learning opportunity.
Bladder dysfunction associated with spinal cord injuries( SCI)
The loss of genitourinary function - the dysfunction of the genital and urinary organs - is one of the most important results of SCI. Specifically, neurogenic bladder; often associated with SCI, results from damage to the nerves controlling bladder function.
A lesion above the sacral level of the spinal cord, which may or may not involve the brain, could affect how the bladder stores and empties urine. These upper motor lesions are most commonly seen after cerebrovascular accidents (stroke), spinal cord injuries, neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and also infections
Until recently, the main consequences of spinal cord injury were confinement to a wheelchair and a lifetime of medical help. Treatment options for SCI used to be limited; the available care was highly unsatisfactory and frustrating due to its limited success, unwanted side effects and high costs. However, this has changed since recent advances in neuroscience have drawn considerable attention to research into SCI and have made significantly better treatment and rehabilitation options available.
The Brindley Bladder stimulator
G.S. Brindley approached the problem by developing a stimulation system using electrodes, placed on the bilateral S2-S4 sacral anterior nerve roots. The Brindley Vocare Bladder System is now used in combination with posterior rhizotomy Posterior Rhizotomy refers to the surgical procedure during which sensory nerve rootlets that come from the muscles (e.g., bladder muscles, lower limbs) and enter the spinal cord are selectively sectioned (i.e. cut). The procedure is used to avoid reflex contraction of the bladder muscles (which may otherwise lead to uncontrolled bladder emptying) and reduce spasticity in the lower limbs after cerebral palsy or spinal cord injury.
The Brindley bladder stimulator delivers intermittent stimulation to the anterior sacral roots and has shown good results in management of neurogenic dysfunction of the bladder.
The stimulus parameters can be adjusted and set specifically for individual use. Its primary purpose is to improve bladder emptying, thereby to eliminate urinary infection and to preserve kidney function. It also assists in defecation and enables male patients to have a sustained full erection.
The Brindley Bladder System consists of four main components
1)The external RF-Control Unit- this might be the external box that you are referring to.
2) Surgically implanted Receiver-Stimulator
3) Surgically implanted leads
4) Surgically implanted electrodes
The internal and external sphincter muscles form a ring around the urethra (the small tube through which urine flows from the bladder and empties from the body) to keep urine in the bladder. The external sphincter can be controlled voluntarily, whereas the contraction and relaxation of the internal sphincter is involuntary. In order to urinate, both the external and internal sphincters much be relaxed so that urine is able to flow through the urethra and exit the body.
In the past, efforts to restore bladder control using electrical stimulation have been unsuccessful- due to the fact that nerve roots that supply the sphincter muscles and the bladder muscles contract simultaneously upon electrical stimulation, thereby counter acting each other.
The Brindley bladder stimulator delivers intermittent stimulation to the anterior sacral roots and has shown good results in management of neurogenic dysfunction of the bladder.
Intermittent stimulation bursts to the anterior sacral roots can be timed in a way that the peaks of contraction of the sphincter and bladder are out of phase; the contraction of the two don't occur at the same time.While the sphincter relaxes rapidly at the end of each stimulus burst, the pressure in the bladder is still sufficiently high to produce urination
The link below will provide more info on this:
http://www.jyi.org/volumes/volume6/issue...
Probably TENS (transcutaneous electrical stimulation)
Here's more info about it:
http://www.emedicine.com/pmr/topic206.ht...
Spinal tap I believe. Its to draw fluid