The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 16, 2003
Filed:
Nov. 21, 2000
Carla M. Mann, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Paul M. Meadows, La Crescenta, CA (US);
Advanced Bionics Corporation, Sylmar, CA (US);
Abstract
A patient and/or a clinician may program an implant device, e.g., an implanted spinal cord stimulator (SCS), through the use of a programming computer, or clinician programmer, linked with the implant device so that the paresthesia resulting from an applied electrical stimulus pattern is adjusted or programmed so as to match the area of perceived pain or other need. Data is initially stored in the computer that relates to known information regarding the anatomical relationships between the spine and the body. The body is divided into dermatomes and/or subdivisions of dermatomes, and a representation of the body, including its dermatomes and/or subdivisions of dermatomes are displayed on the screen (or other display device) associated with the computer. The patient moves a cursor over the regions of the body displayed on the computer screen to select the region of pain, or a region of paresthesia, by a click of a mouse or the press of a button. The patient may select as many dermatomes or body segments/regions/subdivisions as necessary to communicate the area of pain or paresthesia to the computer. The computer uses the patient-provided information, as well as the pre-programmed data therein, to quickly zero in on an electrode combination and appropriate stimulus parameters that create a match (or as close of a match as is possible) between the pain region and the paresthesia region.