title: Vagus nerve stimulation: longitudinal follow-up of patients treated for 5 years.
abstract: We performed a retrospective, multicenter, open-label study to evaluate the efficacy of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) in all patients in the Czech Republic who have received this treatment for at least 5 years (n=90). The mean last follow-up was 6.6+/-1.1 years (79+/-13 months). The median number of seizures among all patients decreased from 41.2 seizures/month in the prestimulation period to 14.9 seizures/month at 5 years follow-up visit. The mean percentage of seizure reduction was 55.9%. The responder rate in these patients is in concordance with the decrease of overall seizure frequency. At 1 year after beginning the stimulation, 44.4% of patients were responders; this percentage increased to 58.7% after 2 years. At the 5 years last follow-up 64.4% of patients were responders, 15.5% experienced > or = 90% seizure reduction, and 5.5% were seizure-free. A separate analysis of patients younger than 16 years of age showed lower efficacy rates of VNS in comparison to the whole group. Complications and chronic adverse effects occurred in 13.3% of patients. VNS is an effective and safe method to refractory epilepsy in common clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Brno Epilepsy Center; First Department of Neurology, St. Anne's University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Pekarská 53, Czech Republic. robert.kuba@fnusa.cz
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kuba
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brázdil
authors.forename: Miroslav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kalina
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Procházka
authors.forename: Jirí
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hovorka
authors.forename: Tomás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nezádal
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hadac
authors.forename: Klára
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Brozová
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sebronová
authors.forename: Vladimír
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Komárek
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marusic
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oslejsková
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zárubová
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rektor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018153:Czech Republic / Q000453:epidemiology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010147:Pain Measurement; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055536:Vagus Nerve Stimulation / Q000379:methods*