Patent ID: 8932200
Filing Date: 2015-01-13
Classification: A61F

Abstract:
1. A device for treating urinary incontinence, the device comprising: a body comprising a preshaped foam or gel encapsulated within an outer shell, and the device only defining a single interior chamber therein, the device being fluid tight and having an uninterrupted outer surface and all of the foam or gel being contained within the single interior chamber, the body having an inner surface defining a through passage, for communicating with a urethra of a patient, and the passage extending from an inlet to an outlet of the device and the inner surface being biased, by the foam or gel, radially inwardly into a flow obstruction position, the passage being configured so that, following surgical implantation of the device in the patient, a section of the urethra communicates with the passage of the device, and the foam or gel normally automatically and continuously exerts an obstruction force on the inner surface, without any external control or actuation of a pump, which collapses the inner surface radially inward so as to form a flow obstruction which obstructs flow of fluid along the urethra; the inner surface of the device being sufficiently pliable and deformable so that only when an internal system pressure, of a fluid flowing within and through the urethra, becomes greater than the obstruction force applied by the foam or gel against the inner surface, the flow obstruction, induced by the inner surface, is overcome and the greater internal system pressure of the fluid within the urethra compresses the foam or gel and biases the inner surface of the passage radially outward, due to the greater internal system pressure within the urethra which is exerted on the inner surface, and the urethra automatically and gradually achieves a urethra patent state which permits fluid flow through the urethra; and once the internal system pressure of the fluid within the urethra becomes less than the obstruction force applied by the foam or gel against the inner surface, the inner surface is automatically biased radially inward, due to the greater pressure applied by the foam or gel, so that the urethra automatically and gradually achieves a urethra non-patent state which blocks flow of fluid through the urethra so that the flow of fluid along the urethra is controlled solely by a change of the internal system pressure in the passage.