1146 - Preliminary Animal Data Assessing a Novel Epidural Lead Placement to Achieve Sacral Nerve Stimulation and Bladder Contraction

Thursday, February 19, 2026

5:00 PM - 6:30 PM AST

Presenting Author(s)

PA

Paul Abboud, MD

Research Scientist
University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

Co-Author(s)

DB

Dennis Bourbeau, PhD

Staff Scientist
MetroHealth Rehabilitation Institute, MetroHealth Medical Center
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
GC

Graham Creasey, MD

Emeritus Faculty
University Medical Line, Stanford University
Stanford, California, United States
SE

Sahar Elyahoodayan, PhD

Center Director of USC Center for Autonomic Nerve Recording and Stimulation Systems
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California, United States
CL

Charles Liu, MD, PhD

Director, USC Neurorestoration Center; Director of Epilepsy Surgery & Secretary
University of South California Keck School of Medicine
Los Angeles, California, United States
EK

Evgeniy Kreydin, MD

Assistant Professor of Urology; Director of Genitourinary Restoration
University of South California
Los Angeles, California, United States

Corresponding Author(s)

RE

Reza Ehsanian, MD, PhD

Vice Chair of Research and Assistant Professor
University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

Submitter(s)

PA

Paul Abboud, MD

Research Scientist
University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States

Objectives: Current functional electrical stimulation interventions for neurogenic bladder after spinal cord injury (SCI) require an invasive surgery. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of a novel epidural lead placement to achieve sacral nerve stimulation and bladder contraction in a sheep animal model.

Design: A 5-French pressure sensing/filling catheter and 12-French rubber emptying catheter were inserted, with bladder pressure measured using a urodynamic system. An L3 to S3 laminectomy was performed to expose the sacral nerves, to ensure appropriate placement of two standard Nevro leads, each with eight contacts. The bladder was filled to 200 mL, and bladder contraction resulting from twelve different stimulation patterns (frequency, pulse width, and amplitude) using the Nevro pulse generator was tested.

Results:

Preliminary results from our study indicate that stimulating at a frequency of 3 kHz, pulse width of 140 μs, and amplitude of 8 mA was the most effective in producing bladder contraction and urination.

Conclusions: Sacral nerve stimulation has the potential to achieve both continence and emptying without the need for a rhizotomy or catheterization. While a laminectomy was conducted to precisely visualize lead position, future experiments will implement a non-surgical, fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous lead placement. This study confirms that this novel epidural lead placement strategy can achieve bladder contraction and urination in an animal model without SCI. This data supports further pursuit of investigations of percutaneous epidural lead placement in patients with spinal cord injury to restore bladder function.