Vagus Nerve Stimulator Doubles Movement Recovery in Stroke Patients

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy is designed to avoid seizures by sending consistent, mild pulses of electrical signals to the brain through the vagus nerve. These pulses are delivered by a device, which resembles a pacemaker. Vagus nerve is a part of the autonomic nervous system that controls involuntary functions of the body such as heart rate. It passes through the neck, which passes between the chest and abdomen to the lower part of the brain. VNS device is referred to as the "pacemaker of the brain," and is placed under the skin on the chest wall. A wire runs from it to the vagus nerve in the neck. Vagus nerve stimulators are used in treatment of intractable epilepsy and treatment-resistant depression.

Over the past three decades, vagus nerve stimulator therapy is gaining traction due its high success rate. Vagus nerve stimulator therapy has helped reduce the burden of several neurological conditions such as dyskinesia and neurological tremors, among others. Vagus nerve stimulator creates muscle contraction and is able to overhaul the functionality of motor nerve.

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Apart from this, vagus nerve stimulators have other use. They are used in patients that have bladder control difficulties, improve movement, and restoration of hand grasp. Vagus nerve stimulator is also used to improve other neurological conditions such as Crohn’s disease, migraine, and headaches. Besides, patients of asthma, depression, and cardiovascular diseases have been benefitted with vagus nerve stimulators.

A staggering 800,000 Americans suffer a stroke each year. In many cases, this can lead to life-changing impairments in motor function. “Stroke is too common and too debilitating for us to tolerate the status quo,” said Jane Wigginton, a researcher involved in the study. “Patients need a real solution, so they can get back to fully living their lives.”

At present, part of the therapy that stroke patients undergo is physical rehabilitation, which involves repeated movements in an affected limb. It is thought that these movements can help to stimulate neural plasticity, whereby the neural circuitry in the brain reorganizes itself to help restore movement and control.

This research team aimed to enhance such neural plasticity during rehab with a bit of electricity. To do so, they developed a device that can be implanted to stimulate the vagus nerve in the neck. The vagus nerve controls the parasympathetic nervous system, and electrical stimulation of this nerve seems to help to increase neural plasticity.

They paired the vagal nerve stimulation with traditional physical rehab, and precisely timed the nerve stimulation to occur during movements of the affected limb. In a recent small study, the team found that the vagal implant doubled the effectiveness of the rehab, leading to twice as much movement recovery in treated patients.

Vagus nerve stimulator segmented into implantable VNS devices and external VNS devices & it can be is categorized as depression, epilepsy, and migraine.

Leading companies like Nevro Corporation, NeuroPace, Medtronic, LivaNova, EnteroMedics, ElectroCore, Boston Scientific, Bioness, BioControl Medical, Aleva Neurotherapeutics SA etc.

References:

https://www.medgadget.com/2018/10/vagus-nerve-stimulator-doubles-movement-recovery-in-stroke-patients.html

https://www.theinsightpartners.com/reports/vagus-nerve-stimulator-market