Restoration of bladder function in spinal cord injury
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Restoration of bladder function after spinal cord injury by electrical stimulation without rhizotomy
IRAS ID
260021
Contact name
Alexander Green
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford/Clinical Trials and Research Governance
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Spinal cord injuries (SCI) have devastating effects on many systems within the body, including the bladder. Patients who have an SCI may have problems with urinary retention, urinary leakage, frequent urinary tract infections, stones and kidney damage. These have major costs to the patient but also to the health system and society at large.\n\nIt has been shown that implantation of a device to electrically stimulate the anterior sacral nerve roots in patients with SCI can improve urinary voiding. However, there are some problems associated with this technique including ongoing reflex contractions of the bladder and also un co-ordinated sphincter contractions that can interfere with urinary voiding.\n\nHigh frequency electrical stimulation of the sacral anterior nerve roots may be the solution to some of these unwanted symptoms, by stimulating the nerves that produce bladder contraction but at the same time leading to fatigue of the sphincter muscle so that it is not able to contract and interfere with voiding.\n\nThe aim of this study is to work with patients who have already had sacral anterior nerve root stimulators implanted and to look at whether new high frequency stimulation parameters can improve their bladder function by enabling urinary voiding but reducing the occurrence of unwanted reflex bladder contractions and unwanted sphincter contraction.\n
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/SC/0412
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jan 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion