Implantable Device Helps Kids with Epilepsy

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- An implantable generator that stimulates the vagal nerve can reduce the incidence of seizures in children with difficult-to-control epilepsy.

That’s the finding from a new study out of Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. Forty-five percent of patients who received the device experienced a more than 50-percent reduction in the number of seizures, and nearly 20 percent were seizure-free for the final six months of the study. The treatment reduced the intensity of seizures in half of the patients.

Most children with epilepsy can be treated with drug therapy, but some children do not respond to anything their physicians try. In the late 1990s, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of intermittent stimulation of the left vagal nerve as a therapy for adults and children over age 12 who were not responding to other treatments. Most studies conducted since then, including those involving younger children, have shown positive results for the treatment.

This study set out to gauge its effectiveness in 100 patients who were treated at one pediatric epilepsy center. The average age of the participants was about 10 and all had failed to respond to previous treatments for their epilepsy. The positive outcomes noted above were seen in children regardless of how old they were or how long they had had difficult-to-treat epilepsy. Three patients developed infections related to the generator, and 24 had the devices removed during the study. Among the latter group two patients subsequently died.

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