Successful outcome of episodes of status epilepticus after vagus nerve stimulation: a multicenter study
Sierra-Marcos A, Maestro I, Rodríguez-Osorio X, Miró J, Donaire A, Aparicio J, Rumiá J, Forcadas M, Garamendi I, Pardo J, López J, Prieto Á, Plans G, Falip M, Carreño M.
Eur J Neurol. 2012 Sep;19(9):1219-23.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-1331.2012.03707.x.
Continuing on this month's theme of vagus nerve stimulation (#VNS) and status epilepticus (#SE), this scientific paper by Sierra-Marcos et al. 2012 retrospectively examined the efficacy of VNS on the reoccurrence of SE in a cohort of patients with drug resistant epilepsy (#DRE) and frequent episodes of SE.
Highlights
• VNS Therapy significantly reduced the incidence of SE in patients with a history of multiple episodes of SE prior to VNS insertion.
• 50% of the cohort did not have any reoccurrence of SE following VNS implantation.
• VNS Therapy was associated with a significant decrease in #seizure burden.
This study was designed as a multicenter, #retrospective, observational study and included four epilepsy centers in Spain. A total of 8 patients suffering from recurring episodes of SE, defined as > 2 registered SE events prior to the VNS surgery, were identified. The mean age at VNS insertion was 25.1 years and the mean #follow-up time post VNS surgery was 4.15 years (range: 2-7.5 years).
Following VNS insertion, 50% (4 patients) of the cohort did not have any reoccurrence of SE and another 25% of the population (2 patients) had a ≥ 75% reduction in SE events. In the overall population, the incidence of SE significantly decreased from 14.7 to 0.5 events/year after VNS insertion. The VNS Therapy was also associated with a five-fold decrease in seizure burden.
According to the current study, VNS Therapy appears to exert positive effects on the incidence of SE and overall seizure burden in patients with DRE and recurring episodes of SE. However, further prospective studies are needed in order to validate these observations.