• J Clin Neurophysiol · Sep 2001

    Review

    Vagus nerve stimulation, side effects, and long-term safety.

    • E Ben-Menachem.
    • Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteburg University, Sweden. ebm@neuro.gu.se
    • J Clin Neurophysiol. 2001 Sep 1;18(5):415-8.

    AbstractVagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an accepted therapy for the treatment of refractory epilepsy and now even depression. More than 10,000 people have had the device implanted over a period of 12 years. Initial side effects in the early years such as lower facial weakness and electrode lead breaks have now been resolved. Postoperative infections occur in approximately 3% of patients but can be treated with oral antibiotics. Side effects during the use of VNS are usually related to the "on" phase of stimulation. Common side effects are cough, hoarseness, voice alteration, and paresthesias. These side effects tend to diminish with time. Cognitive side effects often seen with antiepileptic drug use are not reported. The side effect profile of VNS is positive, and this treatment option offers patients with refractory epilepsy prospects of good efficacy with only minor and often resolvable side effects.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…