Design of wireless real time artificial sphincter control system for Urinary Incontinence

Urinary Incontinence is the most common health problem in old people, autistic kids and diabetic patients with significant social and economic impact in the quality of life. According to WHO, 20 million people are affected by Urinary Incontinence. This paper proposes an integrated architecture to continuously monitor the patients´ bladder and remotely trigger the wireless artificial sphincter system using wireless power transfer in real time. After analysis, a few Ionic Electro Active Polymers (EAP) were selected to physically control the urethra. Possible designs using EAP polymer for urethra control are elaborated in this paper. This paper analyzes the major challenges of wireless power and data transfer and its impact on the design of the complete system. The proposed system provides a solution to continuously monitor the bladder and send alert messages to the control system that´s on the patient´s body. On receiving these alerts, patients´ will remotely trigger the artificial sphincter control system to release the urine from their bladder. Thus the patients or caregivers can monitor the pressure inside their bladder and control urinal flow remotely by opening and closing the ionic EAP clip from outside. The system design has been simulated and tested with its different parameters and its results are discussed in this paper.