Patent ID: 7894907
Filing Date: 2011-02-22
Classification: A61N

Abstract:
1. A method for stimulating a nerve comprising: implanting in a body of a patient a controller-transmitter at an implantation site to generate acoustic energy, wherein the controller-transmitter comprises acoustic transducers disposed in a housing and one or more physiological sensors disposed on an external surface of the housing, and wherein the one or more physiological sensors are configured to detect one or more physiological parameters; implanting a receiver-stimulator remotely from the controller-transmitter in nerve tissue of the patient at a nerve tissue stimulation site, wherein the receiver-stimulator comprises one or more stimulation electrodes such that the stimulation electrodes lie in electrical communication with the nerve tissue stimulation site; sensing one or more physiological parameters directly from the body using the one or more physiological sensors; generating acoustic energy at the controller-transmitter implantation site using the transducers in the controller-transmitter; receiving the acoustic energy at the nerve stimulation site using the receiver-stimulator; converting the received acoustic energy into an electrical nerve stimulation energy output using the receiver-stimulator, wherein the stimulation energy output has at least one of pulse amplitude, pulse duration, duty cycle, and timing based on energy and signal information included in the generated acoustic energy; delivering the electrical nerve stimulation energy output to the nerve tissue stimulation site using the one or more stimulation electrodes; sensing the electrical nerve stimulation energy output, wherein the physiological sensors are adapted to sense the electrical nerve stimulation energy output; adjusting the acoustic energy transmission from the controller-transmitter to compensate for changes in the electrical nerve stimulation energy output of the receiver-stimulator; and using an external programmer to program one or more settings of the controller-transmitter.