Implantable electrical vesical stimulator: review of the literature and report of a successful case.

Considerable interest has been shown recently in electrical stimulation of the incompetent urinary bladder. Two types of bladder stimulation have been attempted in dogs and in humans: (a) stimulation of nervi erigentes and (b) direct stimulation of the detrusor urinae muscle.After several years of animal experimentation, a vesical stimulator, built on a new electronic principle, was implanted successfully in a paraplegic patient who has a complete post-traumatic lower motor neuron lesion. The stimulator has been working satisfactorily since November 1965.This stimulator could eventually also be used in purely sensory sacral lesions, in well-selected incomplete lower motor neuron lesions, and in flaccid detrusors of the myogenic type.A review of the literature up to the time of this report shows only a few encouraging but incomplete results in humans. The techniques and the complexities involved in this problem are discussed.