Experience with vagus nerve stimulation for intractable epilepsy: some questions and answers. Review uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is gaining increasing popularity and credibility as a treatment option for patients with intractable epilepsy. VNS is a relatively recent innovation, however, and like many other incipient developments, it has engendered a number of unresolved controversies and perplexities. Limitations in our current understanding of how VNS works lie at the crux of these uncertainties. In this article, we present our clinical experience with VNS and review the fundamental issue which remain unsettled, such as the mechanism of VNS action, the factors underlying variability in patient outcome, and the selection of ideal candidates for VNS therapy. Although many enigmas persist, VNS has proven to be a safe, feasible, and potentially effective method of reducing seizures in select patient populations. It offers several advantages over extant treatments and, as a result, holds much promise for future therapy of medically refractory epilepsy.

publication date

  • July 1, 1999

Research

keywords

  • Electric Stimulation Therapy
  • Epilepsy
  • Vagus Nerve

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 0032793262

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.2176/nmc.39.489

PubMed ID

  • 10437376

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 39

issue

  • 7