Treatment of urinary and faecal incontinence by surgically implanted devices.

Three kinds of implant to treat incontinence are considered. The sacral anterior root stimulator (with sacral posterior rhizotomy) is already effective in urinary incontinence due to spinal cord injury, and will have wider application. The conditional pudendal nerve stimulator and the conditional gracilis nerve stimulator are, respectively, almost untried and entirely untried devices; but they show promise, and if successful may help very many patients.