Transcutaneous electrical muscle stimulation for treatment of scoliosis and other spinal deformities

摘要

A method and apparatus for treatment of spinal deformities, for example, scoliosis, in which a muscle stimulator (pulse generator) is used to apply a preferred form of stimulating impulses to a patient so as to involuntarily cause contraction of particular selected trunk muscle groups to thereby effect a curvature correcting movement of selected spinal vertebrae while minimizing undesirable side effects, such as muscle fatigue. A first integrated circuit timer establishes a selectively variable "on-time" for a burst of pulses while a second such timer sets the "off-time" or interval between bursts. The individual pulses in the burst are initially of narrow width, but succeeding pulses in the group are of increasing width up to a predetermined maximum which maximum level is maintained for a desired time ("hold-time") prior to the termination of the burst. In an alternative embodiment, the stimulating impulses may be gradually decreased in width immediately prior to the pulse generator's effective "off-time". It has been determined that this pattern of stimulating pulses, when applied via body contacting electrodes positioned proximate the trunk muscle groups judiciously selected and determined by observations of the spinal curve to be corrected, has particular efficacy in the treatment of scoliosis, kyphosis, lordosis and combinations thereof.