Magnetically-controlled artificial urinary sphincters for severe urinary incontinence

Urinary incontinence (UI) is a dysfunction related to an involuntary urine leakage, mainly caused by a deficient action of the urethral sphincter muscles. When UI is particularly severe, it must be managed via invasive surgical procedures. The most popular artificial urinary sphincters (AUS) are surgically placed around the urethra (i.e. extra-urethral AUS) and they squeeze it whenever necessary to restore continence. Current solutions do not present a unisex design and are constituted of several components, which must be installed in a rather invasive way and which imply a non-comfortable device management and control. The aim of this paper is i) to present the design of novel AUS prototypes, all of them magnetically controlled and actuated, ii) to focus on a unisex design suitable for both female and male anatomies, and iii) to reduce device dimensions and to minimize the implantation invasiveness. Preliminary results demonstrated that magnetically-controlled AUS could be appropriate solutions for different typologies of patients and requirements, depending on endo-or extra-urethral design approach.