Neuromodulation in voiding dysfunction: a historical overview of neurostimulation and its application

This article presents a historical overview of neurostimulation and its application in voiding dysfunction.

Sparking controversy: Jean Antoine Nollet and medical electricity south of the Alps

The paper considers a significant episode in the history of eighteenth-century electricity: the controversy over the "medicated tubes". Invented by the Italian erudite Gianfrancesco Pivati, the tubes were said to produce instantaneous cures. Jean Antoine Nollet was one of the main actors of the controversy. In 1749, after touring Italy to see for himself the Italian tubes and their effects, he published a report, discrediting Pivati's accounts. This study shows that the report, which has since been the main source for interpretations of the controversy, hides the key role of the Bologna Istituto delle Scienze in promoting Pivati's invention. Relying on manuscript sources, I propose a change of perspective on the controversy that illuminates the world of Italian experimental philosophy during the Enlightenment and its place in the Republic of Letters. I also analyze the reasons for Nollet's silence over the involvement of the Istituto delle Scienze in the controversy and the relevance of medical electricity in the wider context of contemporary electrical experimental philosophy.

High-voltage dentistry: modern clinical applications for an ancient dental device

In the early 1900s, a new high-energy device was introduced as a cure-all for a multitude of diseases and conditions that afflicted the population. Dental pain and disease were among those treatable ailments. Treatment consisted of applying direct contact to the body with a handheld, high-voltage Tesla Coil and Geissler tube, which created heat, ozone, and ultraviolet light (UV), termed the "Violet Ray" This treatment was considered mostly a fraud and banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1950.

History Repeats Itself

Although many advances in stereotactic surgery appear to be of recent origin, there are precedents in the literature documenting the planting of those seeds that eventually grew into common procedures. Pallidotomy was the first stereotactic procedure in humans that used the Spiegel-Wycis apparatus in 1947. Other targets for Parkinson's disease have their roots in the decade following that. Using stereotactic techniques to target solid or cystic lesions was introduced in the 1950's, when either calcification or pneumoencephalography were necessary to visualize the mass. One of the first uses of computers in surgery was in stereotaxis. Infusion of a neurotransmitter was first done over 30 years ago.

Treatment of aneurysms with wires and electricity. A historical overview

✓✓ Endovascular treatment of aneurysms has only recently become an accepted therapeutic modality. Nonetheless, treatment of aneurysms with the aid of various foreign bodies such as needle and wire insertion with or without electrical current has been reported since the first half of the 19th century. In 1832 Phillips induced clot formation in the femoral and carotid arteries of dogs by leaving needles in the arteries for variable lengths of time. Simultaneously, in France, Velpeau had proposed using “l'acupuncture des arteres dans le traitement des anevrismes.” Later, Phillips and Pelrequin connected the offending needles to a source of electrical current in an attempt to increase thrombus formation and aneurysm occlusion. Subsequently, Moore introduced the concept of packing the aneurysm with wire inserted through a needle transfixed to the vessel wall. To this method, Corradi added electrical current. Widely known as the Moore—Corradi technique, it was used in ensuing years with variable success. The early phase of endovascular aneurysm treatment culminated when Blakemore and Moore treated a case of symptomatic cavernous sinus aneurysm by passing wire through the patient's orbit. These pioneering cases combined with technological advances in the diagnosis of intracranial aneurysms paved the way for further refinements in coil embolization of aneurysms.

History of neuroaugmentative procedures

Neuroaugmentation, the use of chronic stimulation of the brain and spinal cord for pain management, developed during the past 30 years. It evolved, however, from concepts of pain treatment that were based on observations and clinical experience dating back an additional two decades or more. The appreciation of the role of the extralemniscal system and descending influences from the brain in modulation of pain perception led to the Melzack-Wall gate theory. The concept proposed in that theory, that pain perception could be lessened by increasing activity in neural structures not associated with pain, led to chronic stimulation of deep brain and spinal cord as a modality for the management of chronic pain. Both brain and spinal structures emerged as targets for neuroaugmentation.

Irving S. Cooper and his role in intracranial stimulation for movement disorders and epilepsy

Dr. Irving Cooper (1922-1985) was a pioneer in the field of functional neurosurgery. After years of treating patients with tremor by creating deep lesions with either anterior choroidal artery ligation or cryogenic thalamotomy, he began to utilize methods of electrical cerebral stimulation as treatment for a variety of disorders. Chronic cerebellar stimulation was employed for patients with epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and dystonia. While Dr. Cooper believed his results to be significant, there still remain many challenges to his claims. Later in his career, he placed deep brain electrodes in the internal capsule and thalamus for epilepsy and dystonia. His encouraging results from this small series were often overlooked. This paper reviews the science behind Dr. Cooper's work, his case series, and the controversies surrounding his results.

The history of electrotherapy of pain--or: what Voltaren has to do with voltage

To reasons not yet completely understood, the pharmaceutical trademark Voltaren or Voltarol refers to the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) who played an important role in the history of electricity. It is shown that electrotherapy has been used for the treatment of pain, gout and rheumatic disorders from ancient times to the present day. This therapeutic attempt was also discussed in scientific literature in the late 1960s, the time Voltaren was under development. Therefore, it is suggested that the electrotherapy of pain in history is a background for chosing this trademark.

[History of development of manufacture of implanted pacemakers: plans and reality]

The paper deals with the history of design and development of implanted pacemakers, emphasis is also laid on electric neuromyostimulators. Present-day problems and prospects in this area are touched upon.

Russian electrical stimulation: the early experiments

Russian forms of electrical stimulation became popular to a large extent as a result of the activities of Kots, who claimed force gains of up to 40% in elite athletes as a result of what was then a new form of stimulation. He did not provide details of his published work, nor did he give references. Russian electrical stimulation became popular despite the lack of research in the English-language literature. No studies published in English examined whether the "10/50/10" treatment regimen (10 seconds of stimulation followed by 50 seconds rest, repeated for 10 minutes) advocated by Kots is optimal, and only one study addressed whether maximum muscle torque was produced at an alternating current frequency of 2.5 kHz. The few studies that compared low-frequency monophasic pulsed current and Russian electrical stimulation are inconclusive. This article reviews and provides details of the original studies by Kots and co-workers. The authors contend that these studies laid the foundations for the use of Russian forms of electrical stimulation in physical therapy. The authors conclude that there are data in the Russian-language literature that support the use of Russian electrical stimulation but that some questions remain unanswered.

J.L. Corning and vagal nerve stimulation for seizures in the 1880s

Beginning in the late 18th century, facial flushing and bounding carotid artery pulses during seizures were seen as evidence that seizures resulted from "venous hyperaemia" of the CNS. Consequently, physicians used digital compression of the carotid artery, and later carotid ligation, to abort seizures. In the early 1880s, New York neurologist James Leonard Corning (1855--1923) developed several instruments for carotid artery compression in the treatment of seizures. These devices included a two-pronged, fork-like instrument (the "carotid fork") for temporary compression as an abortive treatment and an adjustable belt-like instrument to encircle the neck (the "carotid truss") for chronic compression as a prophylactic treatment. Corning's uncontrolled observations suggested that the abortive treatment decreased the duration of seizures and that the prophylactic treatment decreased the frequency of seizures. Corning later combined instrumented carotid artery compression with other devices to decrease cerebral blood flow, including transcutaneous electrical vagal nerve and cervical sympathetic stimulation. Observed side effects of treatment included bradycardia, dizziness, and syncope. Corning's use of instrumented carotid compression and his precocious application of transcutaneous electrical vagal nerve stimulation were not widely adopted by neurologists, and these techniques and devices ultimately were abandoned in the late 19th century.

Injectable electronic identification, monitoring, and stimulation systems

Historically, electronic devices such as pacemakers and neuromuscular stimulators have been surgically implanted into animals and humans. A new class of implants made possible by advances in monolithic electronic design and implant packaging is small enough to be implanted by percutaneous injection through large-gauge hypodermic needles and does not require surgical implantation. Among these, commercially available implants, known as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, are used for livestock, pet, laboratory animal, and endangered-species identification. The RFID tag is a subminiature glass capsule containing a solenoidal coil and an integrated circuit. Acting as the implanted half of a transcutaneous magnetic link, the RFID tag is powered by and communicates with an extracorporeal magnetic reader. The tag transmits a unique identification code that serves the function of identifying the animal. Millions of RFID tags have been sold since the early 1980s. Based on the success of the RFID tags, research laboratories have developed injectable medical implants, known as micromodules. One type of micromodule, the microstimulator, is designed for use in functional-neuromuscular stimulation. Each microstimulator is uniquely addressable and could comprise one channel of a multichannel functional-neuromuscular stimulation system. Using bidirectional telemetry and commands, from a single extracorporeal transmitter, as many as 256 microstimulators could form the hardware basis for a complex functional-neuromuscular stimulation feedback-control system. Uses include stimulation of paralyzed muscle, therapeutic functional-neuromuscular stimulation, and neuromodulatory functions such as laryngeal stimulation and sleep apnea.

[Galvanic and Faradic power in Anaesthesia]

Electrical anaesthetic methods have been applied for the first time in Paris (May-June 1847) by the physiologist and anatomist scientist Fortuné Christophe Ducros. Ducros's scientific research works were not published so they were forgotten. In fact the electrical anaesthetic methods were dropped on account of the difficult conceiving of the electrical devices and the easiness of methods using either and chloroform. In 1858 J.B. Francis, a dentist of Philadelphia, pulled out 164 teeth in presence of official dentists by means of this method. Apolloni Pierre Préterre, a Parisian dental surgeon, introduced again the method in June 1858 and Victor Auguste François Morel-Lavallée, Jean-Baptiste Fonssagrives and Léon Athanase Gosselin tested it in some French hospitals without further delay. In December 1859, Jean-Baptiste Georges invented a device to use galvanism and induction particularly for cauterisation in the mouth or for local anaesthesia. Eventually the electrical method failed and was neglected.