A Hydraulic Implantable Artificial Detrusor for Controlled Bladder Voiding

Severe spinal cord injuries or detrusor muscle degeneration due to aging can cause the loss of contractility of the urinary bladder. To date, long-term clinical solutions to restore contraction control include neurostimulators with unpleasant long-term side effects. Thus, implantable artificial detrusors turn out to be an urgent promising solution in this field. In this paper, an origami-based fluidic system is proposed as a robotic prosthesis for human bladder voiding. Both on-the-bench and ex vivo tests highlighted promising results with a bladder voiding efficiency range of 75-90%.