Safety and clinical effects of a new pacemaker for urinary retention

New treatment options in the management of urinary retention are desirable to decrease the necessity for catheter use for intermittent urinary drainage. High frequency electrical stimulation of the sacral or pudendal nerves can provide such a new therapy to treat urinary retention and abolish the necessity for catheterization. High frequency electrical stimulation in the kilohertz range can provide nerve conduction block. Applying this type of stimulation to the pudendal nerve deactivates the nerve and subsequently relaxes the target muscle, in this case the external urethral sphincter. Using electrical stimulation to temporarily deactivate the pudendal nerve and relax the external urethral sphincter might enable patients with UAB to void by simultaneously straining when applying high frequency stimulation. Therefore, we are performing a pre-clinical study on the clinical effects and safety of a new pacemaker for high frequency stimulation of the sacral and pudendal nerves.