Impact of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Drug-Resistant Epilepsy on Patterns of Use and Cost of Health Care Services and Pharmacotherapy [...]
Evans K, Stamas N, Li Q, Vincent T, Halchenko Y, Zhang L, Danielson V, Murphy J, Barion F, Lam S, Lassagne R, Berger A.
Clin Ther. 2023 Feb 4:S0149-2918(23)00027-9.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinthera.2023.01.007
A new study by Evans et al. (Jan. 2023) suggests that vagus nerve stimulation (#VNS) implantation might be associated with reduced #hospitalization and #healthcare services.
This publication studied the impact of VNS on the use and cost of healthcare services and pharmacotherapy in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (#DRE) during a 24 months period before and after VNS implantation.
By analyzing data from 659 patients registered in the U.S healthcare claims database, the study found that the hospitalizations and emergency department visits related to epilepsy and the all-cause hospitalizations and emergency department visits were significantly reduced by 49% and 42% (p<0.001), respectively, during the 24-month post-implantation period compared to the expected value.
Noteworthy, these findings support the results reported in a previous study by Helmers et al. (2011)[1], namely that VNS implantation may decrease the use of healthcare resources and epilepsy-related events.
Ref.
[1].https://www.ejpn-journal.com/article/S1090-3798(12)00002-5/fulltext