Method of electrical muscle stimulation for treatment of scoliosis and

Abstract

This disclosure is directed to an improved method of correction of spinal curvature deficiencies such as scoliosis, lordosis, kyphosis and combinations thereof, utilizing transcutaneous, percutaneous or subcutaneous electrical muscle stimulation of certain target musculature. The improvements reside in the use first of techniques (preferably thermographic) to define pairs of non-overlapping sites of muscle contraction (when electrically stimulated by a predetermined electrical pulse pattern) which sites of muscle contraction surround the reference center or apex of the major curvature to be corrected. Following selection of the muscle sites, one supplies electrical muscle stimulation to each of the muscle sites to be contracted, on an alternating basis, the net effect of which is that the muscle sites jointly apply a corrective force on a constant basis while, at the same time, each said muscle site has a rest period between each stimulation period. Each muscle site is not affected by the electrical stimulation of the other site. The method for applying dual channel alternating stimulation of target muscle sites, which are non-overlapping during stimulation, results in a constant force being applied on the curvature to be reduced without the muscle fatigue which would normally be associated with stimulation of a single muscle site on a constant basis. It appears that the treatment using the above-described techniques of dualchannel alternating stimulation of separate muscle sites which are first carefully defined, as by thermographic mapping, is a substantially more efficient way of hastening reduction of scoliotic, and other spinal, curvature deficiencies.