A study of surface electrodes performance in FES by using the Admittance Method

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) techniques with surface electrodes suffer from their limited selectivity and the necessity of a large current value to activate the muscles. In this paper we present the results of a study based on the Admittance Method (AM) together with models of the membrane activation. The AM allows to determine the effect of surface electrodes in every point at the interior of the arm considered as a non homogeneous, anisotropic and dispersive medium. Suitable electrodes configurations and stimulation strategies to Improve selectivity and reduce the patient's discomfort have been proposed.