Patients with chronic gastrointestinal dysmotility with or without significant neurological impairment may benefit from electrical stimulation of the spinal nerves to trigger the normalization of visceral reflexes mediated by the autonomic nervous system and enteric nervous system. The patients are monitored in Dr. Jihong Chen’s colon motility clinic at McMaster University Medical Center.

What is transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)?

TENS has been used for skeletal muscular pain for decades. Based on the neuroanatomy of human spinal innervation to the gut, stimulating the peripheral nerves will optimize internal organs’ function through the autonomic nervous system and enteric nervous system. Sacral TENS treatment, is a non-invasive and self-managed neuromodulation, targeting on the sacral neuronal centers of defecation and continence inside the spinal cord, which helps to normalize the intrinsic defecation and continence reflexes.