Clinical Relevance

Clinical Relevance

Epilepsy is a chronic disease of the brain that affects people of all ages. About 50 million people around the world have epilepsy. It is estimated that 70 % of people diagnosed with epilepsy could live without seizures and other symptoms if they are properly diagnosed. As previously discussed, to treat focal or partial seizures, vagus nerve stimulation is a possible solution for many. It is designed to change how brain cells work by giving electrical stimulation to certain areas involved in seizures. It helps control seizures by increasing blood flow in the key brain areas, raising levels of some brain substances, and changing EEG patterns during the seizures. VNS doesn’t cure epilepsy but helps to decrease the number of seizures. Initially, people using VNS had an average decrease in seizures by 28% in the first three months. Seizures decreased by 46% after 6 months, 66% after a year, and 70% after 4 years of using the VNS as their treatment. Another way that VNS helped was recovery time after each seizure was much lower than usual, for some people, the seizures were less severe, and many more. There are some exceptions about who can actually use VNS, like, for people with significant asthma or breathing problems, heart problems may be advised against using vagus nerve stimulation. Because using VNS, these issues could worsen making it life-threatening.