Noninvasive Electrical Stimulation Device to Improve Bladder Control for Men With Spinal Core Injury

Urinary incontinence, bladder frequency, and bladder urgency are significant medical problems for people with overactive bladder (OAB) or neurogenic bladder overactivity (NDO). Restoring bladder control is considered a high priority, but remains a critically unmet need requiring further development. The long-term goal is to develop and clinically implement a "bladder pacemaker" able to restore bladder control for individuals with OAB or NDO. Electrical stimulation of the genital nerves inhibits the spinal neural circuits involved in hyper-reflexive bladder spasms.

Genital nerve stimulation (GNS) has been used by multiple groups to inhibit reflexive OAB and neurogenic bladder contractions during acute (1 visit) urodynamic testing and limited chronic take-home testing. The investigators have recently demonstrated that surface GNS inhibits reflexive bladder contractions and reduces incontinence in individuals with SCI during one month of home use using a limited stimulation system. Participant feedback from these studies identified a number of stimulation system issues that created nontrivial inconveniences, which affected activities of daily living and prevented some participants from participating in the study. Required improvements include, but are not limited to better electrode interface, elimination of wired connections, and a smaller device.

The purposes of this proposal are to 1) develop and prototype a device for bladder control for men using GNS and 2) determine the acute effect of GNS on bladder capacity using this new prototype device. This work is building on previous success prototyping a similar device for women with OAB or NDO, which is being developed in other projects. The success of this study will be used to conduct a multi-site study of GNS and lead to clinical implementation.