The role of vagus nerve stimulation in genetic etiologies of drug-resistant epilepsy: a meta-analysis.
Hajtovic S, LoPresti MA, Zhang L, Katlowitz KA, Kizek DJ, Lam S.
J Neurosurg Pediatr. 2022 Mar 18;1-14.
https://doi.org/10.3171/2022.1.PEDS222
This new #review and meta-analysis by Hajtovic et al. (18 Mar 2022) systematically examined the treatment effects of vagus nerve stimulation (#VNS) in genetic etiologies of drug-resistant epilepsy (#DRE).
The study included 47 publications with 216 patients in total, of which 42.6% of the cases were diagnosed with Dravet syndrome (#DS), and 29.2% had tuberous sclerosis complex (#TSC).
Both DS patients and TSC patients demonstrated better #seizure control after VNS Therapy. Among the patients that were diagnosed with DS, 41% (95% CI: 21%-58%) achieved a ≥50% reduction in seizure frequency. However, none of these patients became seizure-free. Noteworthy, among the TSC patients, the seizure freedom rate was 40% (95% CI: 12%-71%), the rate for ≥90% and ≥50% seizure reduction was 31% (95% CI: 8%-56%) and 68% (95% CI:48%-91%), respectively. Furthermore, improvements in quality of life (#QoL) parameters for TSC patients were reported in several studies.
Based on the current results, VNS Therapy appears to be an effective treatment that reduces seizure burden and improves QOL for patients with TSC. However, more evidence is needed in order to characterize the response of VNS Therapy in other genetic etiologies of DRE, such as mitochondrial disease, Rett syndrome, and Doose syndrome.