Implantable functional gastrointestinal neurostimulation

Neural Gastrointestinal Electrical Stimulation (NGES) is a new microprocessor-based method for invoking gastric or colonic contractions by generating multi-channel, high energy, high frequency waveforms. It has been shown that when applied to the lower stomach, NGES offers the possibility for enhancing propulsive peristalsis for the treatment of gastric motor dysfunctions, or for producing retrograde peristalsis for the treatment of obesity. When applied to the colon, NGES can be utilized either for propulsive control in severe constipation or for invoked retrograde contractility. This paper briefly discusses the implementation of an implantable neurostimulator and summarizes the performance of the NGES technique in acute tests on experimental animals and humans, and in chronic tests on animals. These experimental tests indicate that NGES is successful in accelerating gastric emptying of both liquids and solids, and in producing strong, externally-controlled, retrograde contractions.