A new method: Prosthetic bladder controls urine for patients with spinal cord injury

Researchers from the University of Reading, University of Cambridge, King’s College London, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland and University College London have published a new technique for restoring bladder control for patients with spinal cord injuries.

Scientists believe they have devised a device that could one day restore the bladder function of patients that have suffered a severed spinal cord.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have tested the device on animals and published the results in Science Translational Medicine.

Any nerve damage can leave no sense of when the bladder is full or any control over when it is released.

However, the study showed that the device that reads the remaining nerves' signals could be used to control the organ.

Patients often claim that the loss of bladder, bowel and sexual function following a spinal cord injury has the biggest impact on their quality of life.

The device works by having electrodes wrapped around bundles of nerves that can interpret signals that say the bladder is full.

One of the researchers, Dr. Daniel Chew, told the BBC: “The device is not the ultimate goal, the ultimate aim is to regenerate the spinal cord. What we're doing is restoring some function.”

In this project, they introduced stretchable electronics in the field of neuroprosthetics. They used silicone, a soft material, to fabricate a sensor that interfaces with the nervous system and records signals from the bladder.

This device can detect when the bladder is full and stimulate and void the bladder on demand of the user. The entire system can provide long-term bladder management to patients with spinal cord injury.

By Ruchi Singh