Paralyzed muscles can be reanimated by electrical stimulation in order to prevent disuse atrophy and restore functional movement. We have developed a new class of implantable medical devices, BION®s (for BIOnic Neurons), that can provide precise and inexpensive interfaces between electronic controllers and muscles. Separately addressable BION®s can be injected into various sites, where they receive power and digital command data from a single external RF coil. BION®s are currently being investigated in clinical trials in Canada, Italy and the USA.
A first generation BION® developed at Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at The University of Southern California, generates stimulation pulses of 0.2-30mA @ 4-512µs duration. It is now in clinical trials of Therapeutic Electrical Stimulation (TES) to prevent and reverse disuse atrophy in stroke and arthritis patients.
A second generation BION®, currently under development at MDDF, will sense muscle length, limb acceleration and bioelectrical potentials for feedback control of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES).
The BION® projects at MDDF are under the direction of Dr. Gerald Loeb, Professor of Biomedical Engineering.
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