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Magnetically Controlled Endourethral Artificial Urinary Sphincter

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Abstract

Urinary incontinence is a largely spread disfunction that affects more than 300 million people worldwide. At present, no technological solutions are able to restore continence in a minimally invasive and effective way. In this article the authors report the design, fabrication, and testing of a novel artificial endourethral urinary sphincter able to fully restore continence. The device can be inserted/retracted in a minimally invasive fashion without hospital admission, does not alter the body scheme and can be applied to both women and men. The device core is a unidirectional polymeric valve and a magnetically activated system able to modulate its opening pressure. Bench tests and ex vivo tests on a human cadaver demonstrated that the device is able to fully restore continence and to allow urination when desired. Overall, the proposed system shows a high potential as a technological solution able to restore a normal daily life in patients affected by urinary incontinence.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca (Lucca, Italy) for providing financial support for this study, in the framework of the SUAVES (Artificial urinary system based on bladder and sphincter endoprostheses) and the VESPRO (Protesi di VEscica e Sfintere per il riPristino funzionale dell’apparato uRinariO) projects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio, 34, 56025, Pontedera, PI, Italy

    T. Mazzocchi, Leonardo Ricotti & A. Menciassi

  2. Urology Department, University of Siena, Via Banchi di Sotto, 55, 53100, Siena, Italy

    N. Pinzi

Authors
  1. T. Mazzocchi
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  2. Leonardo Ricotti
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  3. N. Pinzi
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  4. A. Menciassi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leonardo Ricotti.

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Associate Editor Umberto Morbiducci oversaw the review of this article.

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Mazzocchi, T., Ricotti, L., Pinzi, N. et al. Magnetically Controlled Endourethral Artificial Urinary Sphincter. Ann Biomed Eng 45, 1181–1193 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-016-1784-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-016-1784-2

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