Vagus nerve stimulation in patients with therapy-resistant generalized epilepsy
Suller Marti A, Mirsattari SM, MacDougall K, Steven DA, Parrent A, de Ribaupierre S, Andrade A, Diosy D, McLachlan RS, Burneo JG.
Epilepsy Behav. 2020 Oct;111:107253.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107253.
In line with the theme of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (#LGS) and vagus nerve stimulation (#VNS), this study by Marti et al. (Oct. 2020) reported the treatment outcome of VNS on 46 generalized epilepsy patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (#DRE), including 29 LGS patients and 17 genetic generalized epilepsy (GGE) patients.
The median follow-up was 63 months (31-112.8 months). The LGS group had a significantly younger age for VNS implantation (p=0.02). The responder rate in the LGS group was 41.7%, while 64.7% was in the GGE group. Significant treatment outcomes included seizure control in generalized tonic-clonic seizures (p=0.043 in GGE group) and less seizure-related hospital admission (preimplantation: 91.3%; postimplantation: 43.5%; p<0.05).
The study suggested that VNS should be considered as a treatment for DRE patients with generalized epilepsy.
