Patent classifications
A61B5/227
Devices and methods for sexual wellness
Some adult devices are ostensibly marketed to improve female sexual experience female by offering exercises to address relaxed vaginal muscles from birth, age, surgery etc. and for reducing incontinence. However, such devices suffer from variable placement by the user both in terms of orientation and penetrative depth such that the results are not reproducible and captured data used to provide feedback to the user and/or providing visual/audible prompts is flawed. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a device with reproducible placement and data for enhancing the usability/benefit of the exercise regimen. It would be further beneficial for the device to either provide this exercise regime as part of a wider assessment of sexual wellness or as part of a sexual stimulation activity thereby reducing the focus on exercise to derive the benefits of improved pelvic muscle control.
Probe for Measuring a Patient's Bulbocavernosus Muscle Reflex
A method and system to obtain and process data indicative of muscle reflexes for screening and/or diagnosing a patient with a brain injury or spinal cord injury, and especially for obtaining and processing data indicative of reflexes from the bulbospongiosus muscle. Certain embodiments employ a novel electromechanical probe for stimulating the bulbospongiosus muscle to identify a time of the stimulation so that electrical responses from electrodes on the patient's skin can be identified for analysis.
PELVIC MUSCLE EXERCISER
The present invention is directed to a device which may be used to interactively exercise pelvic muscles. This is expected to prevent the need for more intrusive surgical procedures, to improve the life of women and men that suffer from incontinence, to help women strengthen their pelvic muscles after birth to enable subsequent vaginal births rather than caesarean sections. The invention relates to a pelvic muscle exercise monitor that is a suppository/tampon type internal unit that may be placed within either the rectum or the vaginal canal and which sends signals to a remote receiver, typically a smart phone, but possibly a dedicated device or a computer.
DIAGNOSTIC PROBE FOR MEASURING THE DEFORMATION OF AN INTERNAL CAVITY
The diagnostic probe can be inserted into a vaginal or rectal body endo-cavity of the human body so as to measure the displacement of the walls of the endo-cavity and organs that surround the endo-cavity and so as to measure the displacement and the passive and active resistance of at least one muscle of the perineum. The diagnostic probe includes at least one endo-cavitary body provided with at least two pressure sensors arranged in the same plane and acting either in the same direction or in two opposite directions. The endo-cavitary body can be deformable without opposing resistance and matching the walls of the endo-cavity. The endo-cavitary body includes at least one device for measuring the displacement of the endo-cavitary wall along the three axes X, Y and Z.
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A UNIVERSAL SENSOR
A universal sensor pod provides a native sensing function during a first mode of operation and a secondary sensing function during a second mode of operation. The universal sensor pod may transition from the native sensing function to the secondary sensing function upon detecting that a sensor capable of the secondary sensing function is connected to the universal sensor pod via a smart connector. The universal sensor pod may continue one or more native sensing functions along with the secondary sensing function upon detecting that a sensor capable of the secondary sensing function is connected to the universal sensor pod via a smart connector. A code embedded within the smart connector is transmitted to a processor contained within the universal sensor pod and in response, the processor executes a firmware application that is tailored to the secondary sensing function code in response to receiving the code.
Apparatus, system, and method for testing and exercising the pelvic floor musculature
An apparatus (100) for testing and exercising pelvic floor musculature, the apparatus comprising an elongate housing (101) adapted for a pelvic floor aperture. The housing (101) accommodates an oscillator (120) and an accelerometer (130) connected to a signal processor (140) configured for communicating signals representative of values read from the accelerometer (130). A result is calculated from an applied oscillation and a response measured, and used for characterizing the musculature. In one embodiment the frequency resulting in the greatest response from the musculature is measured, and this frequency is applied during exercise.
Probe for measuring a patient's bulbocavernosus muscle reflex
A system and method is disclosed for measuring muscle reflexes (e.g., a bulbocavernosus reflex) as a tool for identifying/diagnosing dysfunctions (e.g., spinal cord abnormalities, bladder voiding dysfunction, and sexual organ dysfunction) non-invasively by using mechanical stimulation. The system and method includes a probe having a predetermined patient contacting portion, wherein when the contacting portion is moved into contact with a particular area of the patient (e.g., the patient's genitals), the contact induces a muscle reflex. The probe detects the pressure resulting from the contacting portion being abruptly and forcibly brought into contact with the particular area. Such detection is used to electronically initiate capture of electrical responses from a plurality of electrodes placed on the patient's skin in proximity to the particular area. Such electrical responses are processed to determine characteristics of the patient's reflexes of one or more muscles adjacent to the electrodes.
PROBE FOR MEASURING LIP CLOSING FORCE
Disclosed herein is a probe 1 for measuring a lip closing force, the probe including: a hollow balloon 10 configured to be disposed between an upper lip 50 and lower lip 51 of a subject, and crushed and deformed by the lip closing force, and a base 20 which is connected to a pressure measurement device 100 for measuring an internal pressure of the balloon 10. The balloon 10 is provided with a fixable portion 13 configured to be sandwiched between teeth 52 and 53 or gums of the subject.
Methods and probes for vaginal tactile and electromyographic imaging and location-guided female pelvic floor therapy
Methods and a probes are disclosed for vaginal tactile and electromyographic imaging, and location-guided female pelvic floor therapy. Methods include the steps of inserting a vaginal probe equipped with tactile sensors and electrodes acting as electromyographic sensors into a vagina along a vaginal canal to separate apart two opposing vaginal walls, recording a tactile response and an electromyographic response from at least one of two opposing vaginal walls during pelvic floor muscle contraction, determining locations along the vaginal canal for delivery of therapy based on presence of tactile response above a predetermined tactile threshold and/or presence of electromyographic response above a predetermined EMG threshold along the vaginal probe, selecting at least one of target locations to be used for location-guided therapy, and applying the therapy such as electrical muscle stimulation to at least one of selected locations using the same electrodes at these locations. The probe comprises a probe housing, a tactile sensors array, a plurality of electrodes which can be used as an electromyography array or as an electric muscle stimulation array, and at least one reference electrode.
TREATMENT OF URINARY INCONTINENCE
The present invention relates to the diagnosis and treatment of urinary incontinence. The diagnosis and treatment involves the use of a multiple sensor-enabled catheter capable of providing real-time data regarding the patient's physiology, such as urinary flow and muscular function of the bladder sphincter, as well as the position and movement of the catheter within the patient.