Simulation And Optimum Design Of Surface Electrode For FES Used To Treat Foot Drop

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is a new kind of method which can reconstruct the recessionary muscle and achieve the goal of treating and recovering the function of the recessionary muscle consequently. It works well in treating the foot drop caused by cerebral apoplexy. Although percutaneous surface FES has the advantages of painless, no trauma and good effect of rehabilitation, But it also has the defects of poor stimulating effect and bad stimulating selectivity. So it has important theoretical value and clinical application value to research the surface electrode based on the FES.First, FES acting on human histology is analyzed in theory. The responding mechanism is described in detail when neuron is in an external electric field, and the electric field distribution is deduced when nervous tissue is under the action of an electrical stimulation. Then, with COMSOL Multiphysics, the simplified finite element model of leg is built based on human physiology. The electric field distribution in human body is explored and evaluation indicators of the effect of FES are set. At the same time, the influence because of variation of shape, area, and distance between positive and negative sides of one stimulating electrode is verified, and it shows the shape of a stimulating electrode is not an important influencing factor. Besides, array electrode is modeled and optimized according to the influence on stimulation effect of different distance between two stimulating electrodes.At last, with the simulation result, a 5x6 array electrode system is designed, and an experimental platform is built to perform the FES experiment. Through the way of single channel and the combination of multi-channels to exert FES, good experimental results have been achieved, further verify the effectiveness of the clinical application of the electrode designed in this subject.