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NIH grant 1R61NS143667-01A1: Noninvasive Electrical Stimulation Device to Improve Bladder Control for Women with Spinal Cord Injury
Institute: {'code': 'NS', 'abbreviation': 'NINDS', 'name': 'National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke', 'admin_org_id': '12500053', 'admin_funding_url': ''}. PI: DENNIS BOURBEAU. Award: $572132.
Start: 2026-08-22T00:00:00.
Neurogenic bladder dysfunction after neurologic disease or injury such as spinal cord injury (SCI) can lead
to bladder hyper-reflexia where the bladder reflexively contracts repeatedly at small bladder volumes. Bladder
hyper-reflexia can trigger autonomic dysreflexia, result in incontinence, urinary tract infections, renal damage
and decreased independence and quality of life. Restoring bladder control is considered a high priority, but
remains a critically unmet need requiring further development, especially for women with SCI.
Our long-term goal is to develop and clinically implement a “bladder pacemaker” able to restore bladder
control for individuals with SCI. Electrical stimulation of the sensory genital nerves inhibits the spinal neural
circuits involved in hyper-reflexive bladder spasms. Genital nerve stimulation (GNS) has been used by multiple
groups to inhibit reflexive neurogenic bladder contractions during acute (1 visit) urodynamic testing and limited
chronic take-home testing. We have recently demonstrated that surface GNS inhibits reflexive bladder
contractions and reduces incontinence in individuals with SCI during one month of home use using a limited
stimulation system. Participant feedback from these studies identified a number of stimulation system issues
that created nontrivial inconveniences, which affected activities of daily living and prevented some participants
from participating in the study. Required improvements include, but are not limited to better electrode interface,
elimination of wired connections, and a smaller device.
The purposes of this proposal are to 1) design and test a prototype device for bladder control for women
using GNS and 2) determine effect of at-home genital nerve stimulation on bladder control. The success of this
study will be used to conduct a multi-site study of GNS and lead to clinical implementation.document fetched 2026-08-30 02:46