What Is Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS)? | Epilepsy

One of the options for treatment of epilepsy is a sort of epilepsy surgery that involves placing a pacemaker. This is called a vagus nerve stimulator. This little tiny pacemaker is placed in your chest wall and then it has leads that are threaded up around your vagus nerve. And what it does is it shoots electricity up the vagus nerve that controls or helps to reduce seizure activity in the brain by changing the neurotransmitters. What you have to think of the vagus nerve stimulator as just another type of medications, because we implant this device, we start at a very low setting. And what happens is each month or every two weeks, you'll go to the neurologist's office, and he or she will adjust the amount of electrical stimulation to help try to control the seizures. This has an efficacy of about one third of the patients seizures have totally stopped, one third they improve the seizures by more than 50%, and one third it doesn't work at all. So you need to have a conversation with your neurologist whether this is a good option for you. So again, a vagus nerve stimulator is a pacemaker that's implanted in your chest wall, shoots electricity into your brain to cut down on the seizures. The other good thing about this pacemaker is it comes with a magnet that the person can wear on their wrist or the caregivers can have, and when the patient or the caregiver sees or feels a seizure occurring, they can give an extra swipe of the magnet across the pacemaker, which gives some added electricity and will abort the seizure before it takes place. So this is another option for control of seizures that you can discuss with your neurologist and your neurosurgeon.

[taraburt]

People if you don't have anything positive to say don't say anything at all. I am an epileptic and take offence to your comment Ashley. If you don't care don't post.

[klj]

My VNS helped, when my meds weren't enough. It's hard to get used to at first, but did not completely help. It did not prevent, but did make them less frequent and very minor

[kayleighvarney]

My daughter is on 3 epilepsy meds and has been accepted for the vns so we're currently on the waiting list which is 4 months

[johndotcom]

My uncles started to physically come out of his chest in just two months time, requiring another surgery. He died not long after. Doctors never answered for it.

[katiecro]

I wish my dr would've offered me this instead of brain surgery!

[deliahill]

I'm glad they got vns for patients for seizures

[giot]

I find this video funny because he says talk to your doctor about it and they are my doctors I already did talk to them about it

[britlyntrent]

I've had seizures for 12 years I'm seeing a neurosurgeon soon to discuss this

[DishonestTrack]

I'm currently on 2, 000 mg of Keppra (morning and night) and 600 mg of Oxcarbazepine (morning and afternoon) and 900 mg of Oxcarbazepine at night. My Neurologist is recommending 1 of 2 surgeries so I'm informing myself on which would be best.

[leoct]

I've had Epilepsy since I was 4 to 5 years old I am currently 29, i'm currently taking 4000mg of keppra & 1600mg of carbamazepine a day The medicine keeps me from having any daytime seizures but I'm still having nighttime seizures every Night and every morning so my neurologist suggested that I think about the VNS therapy, So I was wondering if anyone on here has had it done would they recommend it?, what kind of experiences have they had?

[yish]

Does this device only work for those who have warning seizures? For example the magnet is to be swiped when you feel the seizure coming on, but what if I have a seizure with no warning sign? Is it still worth getting the VNS treatment?

[rachelmulveen]

Hi I have attached the vns inside my body also it is working great for me thank god but I have 2 nurses in the hospital who check me to see me i am on a low number yet I got my vns voice raised up inside me because nobody could hear me talk. I got it done from bueamont hospital in Dublin and a great nurgelost Dr. Cugghain in the regional hospital galway.

[thomascook]

I've had the device placed in me over 15 years ago and it did a very good job for me. I only average 1 to 3 seizures a month now when used to averaged 10 or more a month with two or three medicines. To get better information on it go to Epilepsyfoundation.org on the the device.

[timothyrall]

any info will be helpful im getting the VNS device becouse my sezuires are medicine resistant.. what can i expect from the VNS? does it effect your life in any way? what are the cautious that i need to know? does it hurt when it go's off ? will my setbelt hurt the VNS? is there any restrictions i need to know about?

[bigdaddycool]

i have had one for 4yrs and it has not did anything to help me... i been thinking about just having it taken out

[kimberlynobles-pjtx]

For me it hasn't worked but I'm still trying to keep the faith. I think what my problem may be is that my device is on too low of settings....I may need it turned up also i may not swipe myself with my magnet enough 😢

[KN-hnln]

Iv had a vns device for years but now I don't have seizures in it's died so where would I go to get it removed I'm just wondering

[milosspartak]

Does anyone have this, does it help, or do you still have epileptic attacks.. if possible an answer. thank yo

[luigistravino]

About vns magnet so when talk to much people does it happen to everyone I suffer from epilepsy since I was one year old and I still have seizures and when we do sports do have to switch of vns and all so VNS does the VNS respond to the doctors that had seizures and all say had seizures

[jokersqueen]

My insurance company denied my surgery! Then my neurologist did appear to appear they said to change the model type and file a appeal, did that waited and waited ! Came back saying it was DENIED AGAIN SAYING THAT OT WOULD INCREASE MY HEART RATE! UNITED HEALTHCARE IS A JOKE!