Publication details

Vagus nerve stimulation: Longitudinal follow-up patients treated for 5 years.

Authors

KUBA Robert BRÁZDIL Milan KALINA Miroslav PROCHÁZKA Tomáš HOVORKA Jiří NEŽÁDAL Tomáš HADAČ Jan BROŽOVÁ Klára SEBROŇOVÁ Věra KOMÁREK Vladimír MARUSIČ Petr OŠLEJŠKOVÁ Hana ZARUBOVA Jana REKTOR Ivan

Year of publication 2009
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Seizure
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Medicine

Citation
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2008.10.012
Field Neurology, neurosurgery, neurosciences
Keywords vagus nerve stimulation; efficacy; long-term outcome; comlications
Description We performed a retrospective, multicenter, open-label study to evaluate the efficacy Of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in all patients in the Czech Republic who have received this treatment for at least 5 years (n = 90). The mean last follow-up was 6.6 +/- 1.1 years (79 +/- 13 months). The median number of seizures among all patients decreased from 41.2 seizures/month in the prestimulation period to 14.9 seizures/month at 5 years follow-up visit. The mean percentage of seizure reduction was 55.9%. The responder rate in these patients is in concordance with the decrease of overall seizure frequency. At 1 year after beginning the stimulation, 44.4% of patients were responders; this percentage increased to 58.7% after 2 years. At the 5 years last follow-up 64.4% of patients were responders, 15.5% experienced >= 90% seizure reduction, and 5.5% were seizure-free. A separate analysis of patients younger than 16 years of age showed lower efficacy rates of VNS in comparison to the whole group. Complications and chronic adverse effects occurred in 13.3% of patients. VNS is an effective and safe method to refractory epilepsy in common clinical practice.

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