Affiliations: [a] State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and
Vibration, Institute of Biomedical Manufacturing and Life Quality Engineering,
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai,
China
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Yun Luo, State Key Laboratory of
Mechanical System and Vibration, Institute of Biomedical Manufacturing and Life
Quality Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, 800 Dong Chuan Rd., Shanghai 200240, China. Tel./Fax: +21 3420
6078; E-mail: luoyun@sjtu.edu.cn
Abstract: Patients with fecal incontinence suffer both physically and
psychosocially. Puborectalis helps with continence, and dysfunction of this
muscle may cause fecal incontinence. Though some medical treatments have been
introduced, little work has been done on functional assist device to
puborectalis. This paper presents a design of a functional assist device to
human puborectalis with Ti-Ni shape memory alloy as the actuating part, and
evaluates its deformation and mechanical properties. The effectiveness of this
device was confirmed by preliminary experiments conducted at body
temperature.
Keywords: Fecal incontinence, artificial sphincter, puborectalis, SMA
