Weight loss method and advice

• US 20060247719A1
• Filed: 04/29/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LivaNova USA, Inc. (LivaNova Plc)
• Original Assignee: Cyberonics, Inc
• Inventors: Maschino, Steven E., Armstrong, Scott A., Parnis, Steven M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,835,796 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/40
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 5/0003 Apparatus for the treatment of obesity; Anti-eating devices surgical instruments or methods for treatment of obesity, devices specially adapted therefor A61B17/00; hollow or tubular parts of organs A61F2/04
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36007 of urogenital or gastrointestinal organs, e.g. for incontinence control

Abstract

A method and apparatus for treatment of an eating disorder includes electrically, mechanically and/or pharmaceutically/chemically stimulating a of the vagus nerve of the lower esophagus, cardia, esophageal/cardia junction, cardia/fundus junction or upper stomach so as to induce afferent action potentials on the vagus nerve. The device may be noninvasively adjusted after implantation to provide increased or decreased restriction on the patient'"'"'s gastrointestinal tract. Each stimulus may be administered as a series of programmed pulses of defined amplitude, duration and period, to evoke a responsive signal to the brain by the target nerve, effective for producing a temporary feeling of satiety in the person. An implantable stimulus generator may be operatively coupled to a nerve electrode, pressure device or chemical outlet to apply a defined signal to a selected nerve branch. The implantable stimulus generator is programmable to allow clinician programming of defined signal parameters effective to treat the eating disorder of the patient. Methods are also provided to identify electrodes nearest to a branch of the vagus nerve to apply an electrical stimulation signal with improved efficiency.

Claims

1. A system for treating an eating disorder by electrical stimulation of a vagus nerve of the patient in a manner to induce an afferent action potential on the nerve, comprising:

an implantable gastric band having an inner periphery for contacting at least a portion of the patient'"'"'s gastrointestinal tract, said gastric band comprising a plurality of electrodes for electrical communication with said at least a portion of the gastrointestinal tract,

a pulse generator coupled to said plurality of electrodes capable of providing an electrical signal to at least one of said plurality of electrodes sufficient to induce an afferent action potential on a vagus nerve of the patient.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said electrical signal comprises a pulsed electrical signal and said pulse generator comprises a controller for defining said pulsed electrical signal by a plurality of stimulation parameters selected from the group consisting of a voltage magnitude, a current magnitude, a frequency, a pulse width, an on-time and an off-time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said eating disorder is selected from the group consisting of obesity, bulimia nervosa, and anorexia nervosa.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said electrical signal is sufficient to generate both afferent and efferent action potentials on the vagus nerve of the patient.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said implantable gastric band further comprises an adjustment element that allows said band to be non-invasively and post-operatively adjusted in size to vary a constriction applied to said at least a portion of the gastrointestinal tract.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said adjustment element comprises at least one inflatable balloon member.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said controller is capable of independently addressing each of said plurality of electrodes to deliver said electrical signal to any combination of said plurality of electrodes.

8. A method of treating an eating disorder by electrical stimulation of a vagus nerve of the patient to induce afferent action potentials on said nerve, comprising:

providing an implantable gastric band having a plurality of electrodes;

surgically coupling said implantable gastric band to at least a portion of the patient'"'"'s gastrointestinal tract, said step comprising electrically coupling at least one of said plurality of electrodes to a vagus nerve on said at least a portion of the gastrointestinal tract;

generating an electrical signal;

applying said electrical signal to said at least one electrode coupled to said vagus nerve; and

inducing afferent action potentials on said nerve with said electrical signal.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of providing a pulse generator, said step of generating an electrical signal comprising generating an electrical signal using said pulse generator.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said step of providing a pulse generator comprises providing an implantable pulse generator and a lead, said method further comprising the step of coupling said pulse generator to said plurality of electrodes with said lead.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein said step of providing a pulse generator comprises providing an external pulse generator that is inductively coupled to said plurality of electrodes.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein said step of providing a pulse generator comprises providing a pulse generator having a controller capable of independently addressing each of said plurality of electrodes to deliver said electrical signal to any combination of said plurality of electrodes.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of providing an implantable gastric band comprises providing a band having a plurality of stimulation electrodes and a plurality of sensing electrodes, said method further comprising the step of sensing said induced action potentials on said nerve using said sensing electrodes.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of generating an electrical signal comprises generating a pulsed electrical signal defined by a plurality of stimulation parameters including at least a current magnitude, a frequency, and a pulse width.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein said eating disorder is selected from the group consisting of obesity, bulimia nervosa, and anorexia nervosa.

16. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of inducing afferent action potentials comprises inducing both afferent and efferent action potentials on a vagus nerve.

17. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of electrically coupling at least one of said plurality of electrodes to a vagus nerve comprises electrically coupling at least a first electrode of said plurality of electrodes to the patient'"'"'s anterior vagus nerve and coupling at least a second electrode of said plurality of electrodes to the patient'"'"'s posterior vagus nerve.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said step of inducing afferent action potentials on said vagus nerve comprises inducing afferent action potentials on both said anterior vagus nerve and said posterior vagus nerve.

19. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of providing an implantable gastric band comprises providing a band having an adjustment element.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said adjustment element may be non-invasively actuated, said method further comprising the step of post-operatively and non-invasively adjusting the size of the gastric band to vary a constriction of said at least a portion of the gastrointestinal tract.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein said at least a portion of the patient'"'"'s gastrointestinal tract comprises at least a portion of the lower esophagus, cardia, esophageal/cardia junction, and cardia/fundus junction.

22. The method of claim 8, wherein said step of generating an electrical signal comprises generating an electrical signal in response to a patient command.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said patient command is provided by a magnetic signal from said patient.