IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO THE ELECTRICAL STIMULATION OF MUSCLE

摘要

A muscle stimulation system which stimulates muscles with electrical pulses supplied to electrodes applied to the skin overlying the muscle comprises a system controller and one or more personally portable stimulator units, each provided with electrodes. The system controller stores data relating to the characteristics of pulses to be applied to the muscle e.g. Trophic or functional or a combination thereof, and is adapted to down-load this data to a personal stimulator unit either by an infra-red link or by programming a programmable memory module which is then connected into the stimulator unit. The electrodes are applied to the skin of the patient and supplied with the pulses programmed into the stimulator unit, the stimulator unit being carried by the patient. The system controller may be adapted to be controlled by a personal computer and may also be provided with its own muscle stimulator.