Developing a treatment for neurogenic bladder dysfunction using Model Predictive Control (MPC)

Neurogenic Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction (NLUTD) which is usually called neurogenic bladder, is a dysfunction of the urinary bladder due to malfunction in the central nervous system or peripheral nerves which involved in the control of micturition (urination). Current treatments vary between medications, surgery and open loop Electrical-stimulatory therapy. This paper presents new a treatment approach for this disease using totally a new approach namely the control engineering. A nonlinear model for the LUTD is developed and controller using the Model Predictive Control (MPC) is designed to compensate for the faulty, weak, or absent control signals while considering the constraints in the nerve control signals. The MPC controller shows a significant ability in controlling the micturition process and bringing the bladder behavior to its normal function pattern while satisfying the nerve signal constraints. Meanwhile, the MPC shows significant robustness and excellent ability to deal with wide range of model uncertainties.