Embedded And RF Powered Implantable Medical Device For Gastric Electrical Stimulation (GES)

Abstract

Gastric electrical stimulation (GES) has attracted significant attention in the treatment for Gastroparesis-a common disorder caused in patients suffering from diabetes, cancer and Parkinson's disease. Symptoms include vomiting, nausea, abdominal bloating etc. due to loss of motility in the stomach muscles. GES uses electrical pulses on the stomach tissues to help regain normal motility and reduce the symptoms. Conventional gastric stimulator needs a long surgery to be implanted and it is a big pacemaker like device that runs by a non-rechargeable battery. It has to be replaced once the battery gets exhausted every 5 to 6 years. Hence another round of surgery is done when these devices are needed to be replaced and re-implanted. This takes a heavy toll on patients both physically and financially. In many cases, insurance does not cover the cost of surgery and post-operative care. In this work, a battery-less implantable miniaturized wireless gastric stimulators for long term GES has been developed. Wireless telemetry for the devices is based on inductive coupling at a carrier frequency of 1.3 MHz from an external transmitter which also delivers power. The devices have been tested on a bench top experimental setup by acquiring Electrogastrogram (EGG) signals from the device which are recorded using a Data Acquisition (DAQ) system. The wireless power transfer to the implant device has been demonstrated by testing different transmitter and receiver antenna configurations. Finally, an additional feature of reconfiguring the settings of the device is accomplished by a novel technique of using the carrier signal frequency. These results were well all within the requirements of the system.