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Young patients suffering from severe epilepsy have shown significant reductions in the frequency and severity of their seizures after receiving a new treatment called Vagal Nerve Stimulation (VNS) at Tawam Hospital, in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine and part of the SEHA healthcare system. Preliminary observations showed a reduction in seizure frequency by as much as 50 per cent, with one patient recording a 100 per cent reduction in seizures.
VNS therapy uses a small medical pulse-making device implanted on the patient’s chest which sends electrical impulses to the left vagus nerve – the longest of the 12 cranial nerves and the one responsible for conducting impulses between the brain and various body parts such as the head and neck. These electrical impulses help to prevent the electrical irregularities that cause epileptic seizures.
Over the last year, Dr Mohamed Elhadi Al-Malik, Consultant Pediatric Neurologist and Chief of the Pediatric Neurology Division; Dr Jack Borders, Chairman, Department of Surgery and Pediatric Otolaryngology Consultant; and Dr Amr El Shawarby, Neurosurgeon, with the team from the Paediatric Neurology Division at Tawam Hospital, have implanted VNS devices in 10 patients aged from 3 to 16 years. All of these patients were previously being treated with three or more medications, with no response. The VNS was administered as an additional, complementary treatment to their drug therapy.
Dr Mohamed Elhadi Al-Malik said: “We are very encouraged by the initial results recorded in our young patients receiving VNS treatment, and it is rewarding for us to be able to provide them with an alternative and effective therapy for epilepsy. With the help of VNS, we hope that many of our patients will experience greater normalcy in their day-to-day activities, interrupted less frequently by seizures. We also hope to start reducing the levels of medication given to these young patients which results in excessive sedation. By reducing their medication, these children will become more alert and interactive and that, along with reduction of seizures, will have a highly positive impact on their own quality of life and that of their families.”
Globally, various data on VNS therapy showed that 40 per cent of patients with epilepsy demonstrated that they faced less than half the seizures they had suffered prior to receiving VNS therapy. Also, many patients experienced less severe seizures, shorter seizures, improved recovery periods after seizures, fewer clusters and fewer visits to the emergency room.
Tawam Hospital is part of the SEHA Health System and are owned and operated by SEHA, which is responsible for the curative activities of all the public hospitals and clinics in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
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