Résumé
Washable textile compression sleeve with removable stimulation and recording electrodes [from 10]. Left panel showing inside of the sleeve: saline-soaked sponge electrode placed in a suction cup and stainless-steel snap EMG electrodes. Right panel showing outside of the sleeve: bipolar stimulation electrode and EMG snap electrode with connectors and leads. Abstract Functional electrical stimulation (FES) involves electrical stimulation of nerves and muscles with continuous short pulses of electrical current to assist functional movement of the limbs following paralysis. In this study, we explored a low-cost stimulation electrode based on re-usable buffered-saline-soaked sponge. We investigated the effects of electrode profile and conductivity on the current density at depths below the center of the electrode as well as at the electrode-skin interface. We found from Finite Element Analysis that lower conductivity as well as concave-top sponge electrode can reduce edge-effects. Furthermore, we found that concave-top sponge electrode in conjunction with lower electrode conductivity can improve current density at shallow depths below the center of the electrode. We performed a preliminary cutaneous sensation test on 10 healthy volunteers to validate our computational results. We found that lowering sponge-conductivity by about 1/16 th reduced perceived pain sensation by about 1.572±0.244 times, as assessed with a visual analogue scale.