Electrical stimulation system and methods for treating phantom limb pain and for providing sensory feedback to an amputee from a prosthetic limb

Abstract From the Canadian patent

This invention relates to a system and methods for relieving phantomlimb pain in amputees, and for providing an amputee with sensory feedback from a prosthetic limb (40). The system employs implantable multichannel multi-, chambered interface structures namely, nerve cuffs (30). The implanted nerve cuffs have electrodes (14) which transmit electrical signals generated by a signal generator (12) to nerves (20), recruiting certain neurons to send sensory signals to the cerebral cortex suggesting sensory sensations to the , amputee. Such signals can arise directly from the signal generator approximating the train of signals seen by the cortex in a normally innervated limb, or can …