Patent ID: 7450992

Claim:
A method for maintaining a constant level of paresthesia in a person's body, comprising: generating stimulation pulses using a stimulation source; transmitting the stimulation pulses from the stimulation source to one or more stimulation electrodes implanted proximate target nerve tissue in a nerve pathway in the person's body to cause the stimulation electrodes to deliver the stimulation pluses to the target nerve tissue to cause paresthesia in a portion of the person's body corresponding to the target nerve tissue, each stimulation pulse inducing an action potential in each of a plurality of stimulated nerve fibers within the nerve pathway; for each stimulation pulse, detecting a compound action potential associated with that stimulation pulse using one or more sensing electrodes implanted proximate the nerve pathway at some distance caudal along the nerve pathway from the one or more stimulation electrodes, the compound action potential comprising the action potentials of the plurality of nerve fibers within the nerve pathway that are stimulated by that stimulation pulse; transmitting one or more signals reflecting the one or more detected compound action potentials associated with one or more stimulation pulses; and modifying one or more stimulation parameters of the stimulation pulses generated by the stimulation source and delivered to the target nerve tissue by the one or more stimulation electrodes, based on the one or more signals reflecting the detected compound action potentials associated with one or more stimulation pulses, to maintain a substantially constant level of paresthesia in the portion of the person's body corresponding to the target nerve tissue.