Vagus nerve stimulation surgery

Many people are not particularly familiar with the Peripheral Nerve Stimulation Surgery. This surgery mainly changes the electrical potential within the brain, thereby achieving the effect of treating epilepsy. This type of surgery was quite popular for a while, but it also has certain side effects. Therefore, unless the patient's epilepsy is very severe, such surgery should be considered. This can improve the patient's quality of life. Let's take a look.

Vagus nerve stimulation surgery

Zabarra proposed that he believed that stimulating the vagus nerve might change the electrical potential in the brain, thereby blocking or even preventing epileptic seizures. As to why stimulating the vagus nerve can produce the effect of controlling epileptic seizures, there is no real conclusion yet, but it has been found in animal experiments that stimulating the vagus nerve can indeed effectively control epileptic seizures. This concept was later used by Cyberonics to design a neural stimulation system called NeuroCybernetic

Prosthesis System (NCP for short) is actually used clinically in epilepsy patients.

The actual process of vagus nerve stimulation is as follows: first, a coil is placed on the vagus nerve in the left neck through surgery, and the stimulation device is buried in the chest. Then, every time the patient visits the doctor, the medical staff uses the instrument to adjust the parameters and mode of the stimulation device. The machine will automatically stimulate the vagus nerve according to the set mode to achieve the purpose of controlling epileptic seizures. If the patient's epileptic seizure has precursors, when the patient feels the precursors at home or other occasions, he or she can use a small structure with a magnet inside and pass it across the chest to produce additional stimulation to interrupt the impending epileptic seizure, shorten the duration of the seizure, or reduce the severity of the seizure.

Treatment Outcomes

Currently, among patients around the world who have used vagus nerve stimulation to help control epileptic seizures, about 80% of patients can achieve some degree of improvement in their epilepsy, and 40% of patients can reduce their seizures by half. This effect is long-lasting, and the gains in seizure control may increase over time. Additionally, some patients experience improvements in mood, alertness, and memory through stimulation of the vagus nerve in the brain. It can also reduce the dosage of anti-epileptic drugs and the chance of being sent to the hospital due to seizures, thereby improving the quality of life of epilepsy patients.