MANAGEMENT OF STIMULATION SAFETY LIMITS IN A NEUROSTIMULATION SYSTEM

• US 20120290039A1
• Filed: 05/13/2012
• Published: 11/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Boston Scientific Neuromodulation Corporation (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Boston Scientific Neuromodulation Corporation (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Inventors: Moffitt, Michael A., Kothandaraman, Sridhar, Peterson, David K.L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,950,172 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/45
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36142 for improving safety
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36185 Selection of the electrode configuration
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/37241 providing test stimulations

Abstract

A neurostimulation system for management of stimulation safety limits. The system determines a tissue charge injection metric at each electrode, compares the metric to the hard stop charge limit, and prevents the neurostimulator from delivering stimulation energy to the tissue region in accordance based on the comparison. The hard stop limit may be user-programmable or may be automatically modified in response to detection of electrode characteristics. The system may quantitatively notify a user of a value of the injected charge injected into the tissue. The electrodes may be organized into different sets, in which case, the system may directly control tissue charge independently at each of the electrode sets. If current steering is provided, the system may displace the electrical stimulation energy along the tissue region in one direction, while preventing the charge injection value at each of the electrodes from meeting or exceeding the hard stop charge limit.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A neurostimulation system for concurrent use with different sets of electrodes, comprising:

a neurostimulator configured for delivering electrical stimulation energy to a tissue region in accordance with a stimulation parameter, thereby injecting a charge into the tissue region at the electrodes;

an external control device configured for being actuated to actively modify the characteristics of the delivered electrical stimulation energy, and

control circuitry configured for directly controlling a value of the tissue charge injection independently at each of the electrode sets.

22. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, wherein the control circuitry is contained the neurostimulator.

23. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, wherein the controller is contained in the external control device.

24. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, wherein the different sets of electrodes are respectively carried by different neurostimulation leads.

25. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, wherein each of the different sets of electrodes only have a single electrode.

26. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, the neurostimulator is configured for directly monitoring the value of the tissue charge injection at each of the different sets of electrodes.

27. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, wherein the control circuitry configured for estimating the value of the tissue charge injection at each of the different sets of electrodes based, at least in part, on the stimulation parameter.

28. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, wherein at least two of the electrodes in the respective different sets of electrodes have different physical properties.

29. The neurostimulation system of claim 27, wherein the different physical properties are different sizes.

30. The neurostimulation system of claim 27, wherein the different physical properties are different shapes.

31. The neurostimulation system of claim 27, wherein the different physical properties are different materials.

32. The neurostimulation system of claim 27, further comprising memory storing different hard stop charge limits for the different sets of electrodes.

33. The neurostimulation system of claim 31, wherein the external control device is configured for allowing the user to modify the different hard stop charge limits.

34. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, further comprising memory storing different charge warning thresholds for the different sets of electrodes.

35. The neurostimulation system of claim 34, wherein the external control device is configured for allowing the user to modify the different charge warning thresholds.

36. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, wherein the charge value is defined by one of a charge per phase, a charge density per phase, a k-value, a charge per second, and a charge density per second.

37. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, wherein the value of the charge is in terms of one of a relative value, a normalized value, and an absolute value.

38. The neurostimulation system of claim 21, wherein the neurostimulator is configured for independently conveying electrical current to or from the different sets of electrodes to allow the control circuitry to respectively control the tissue charge injection at the different sets of electrodes.

39-54. -54. (canceled)