Electrical stimulation of sacral nerves and roots for control of the neurogenic bladder and bowel.

After damage to the spinal cord, some of the most frequent and severe complications are due to the neurogenic bladder and bowel, in spite of a variety of methods of management. Bladder and bowel emptying is usually impaired, but electrical stimulation of nerves surviving after spinal cord injury can produce controlled contraction of muscle, including the smooth muscle of the bladder and lower bowel, and this can be used to produce safe and effective bladder emptying on demand without catheters. It can also aid emptying of the bowel and reduce constipation.

Adapting the Finetech-Brindley Sacral Anterior Root Stimulator for Bioelectronic Medicine.

The Finetech-Brindley Sacral Anterior Root Stimulator (SARS) is a low cost and reliable system. The architecture has been used for various bioelectric treatments, including several thousand implanted systems for restoring bladder function following spinal cord injury (SCI). Extending the operational frequency range would expand the capability of the system; enabling, for example, the exploration of eliminating the rhizotomy through an electrical nerve block.

Automated dry thawing of cryopreserved haematopoietic cells is not adversely influenced by cryostorage time, patient age or gender.

Cell therapies are becoming increasingly widely used, and their production and cryopreservation should take place under tightly controlled GMP conditions, with minimal batch-to-batch variation. One potential source of variation is in the thawing of cryopreserved samples, typically carried out in water baths. This study looks at an alternative, dry thawing, to minimise variability in the thawing of a cryopreserved cell therapy, and compares the cellular outcome on thaw.

Needs, priorities, and attitudes of individuals with spinal cord injury toward nerve stimulation devices for bladder and bowel function: a survey.

Study Design: Survey.

Objectives: To investigate the needs and priorities of people with spinal cord injury for managing neurogenic bladder and bowel function and to determine their willingness to adopt neuromodulation interventions for these functions.

Methods: Anonymous online survey.