Aurora BioScience Neurology

VNS Therapy for Pharmacoresistant Epilepsy

 

This resource is intended to provide specific information regarding VNS Therapy™ and pharmacoresistant epilepsy for physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

 

 

Quality of Life Benefits

 

Quality-of-life benefits have been shown to improve for patients using VNS Therapy. Recent publications have demonstrated evidence of quality-of-life benefits in alertness, daytime sleepiness, mood and memory.^1,2,3
 

 

 

The VNS Therapy Patient Registry is a data collection system that allowed physicians to collect post-approval data from their VNS Therapy patients in a systematic way. On a regular basis, VNS Therapy patients and carers were asked how VNS Therapy impacted their seizure frequency as well as various others aspects of their lives (i.e. alertness, post-ictal period, seizure clusters, verbal skills, mood, achievements, memory). The Registry data are NOT part of a controlled clinical study to determine efficacy and quality-of-life improvements. Results suggest that quality-of-life benefits were improved over time with VNS Therapy.

Health economic studies published in Epilepsia and Neurology demonstrated that people after being treated with VNS Therapy spent less time in hospital.^4,5 For all patients treated with VNS Therapy, responders or nonresponders, intensive care unit costs, the number of emergency room visits and ward stays were reduced.⁵

Another quality-of-life benefit of VNS Therapy is its potential to reduce the number or dosage of medications patients require to control seizures. A study published in Neurology demonstrated that when VNS Therapy was added to an existing AED regimen, some patients were subsequently able to decrease the number and/or dose of AEDs they were previously taking.⁶ These findings suggest that patients who respond well to VNS Therapy may be able to reduce the number or dosage of medications they were taking previously.

Results of a multicentre study comparing a group of patients who were treated with VNS Therapy earlier in the course of their epilepsy with a group treated with VNS Therapy later in the course also showed that VNS Therapy improved quality-of-life benefits. Improvements in all areas of quality-of-life benefits were reported by both groups, but significantly more patients in the early group were reported as ‘much better/better’ for post-ictal state and seizure clustering.⁷
 

 

 

 

 

The hand-held magnet offers patients and their families a level of control that confers beneficial effect on quality-of-life.⁸ The magnet may be used in some patients to abort or reduce the severity of seizures, and may improve the post-ictal period.⁹