RESUMO

We studied the effects of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) on eating seizures, which theoretically would be triggered by neural activity and signaling from organs innervated by the vagus nerve. Three adult patients with daily nonreflex and reflex eating seizures were studied; one patient also had hot-water seizures. One patient had bilateral polymicrogyria and two had normal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings. All patients were submitted to VNS implantation and had at least 2 years of postimplantation follow-up. Final stimulation parameters were 2.0-2.5 mA, 500 micros, and 30 Hz. Eating seizures decreased 70-95% and nonreflex seizures decreased 0-40% after VNS. There was no improvement in hot-water seizures. VNS seems to be an especially useful treatment modality in patients with reflex eating seizures not amenable to resective surgery.

Assuntos

Epilepsia Reflexa/terapia , Estimulação do Nervo Vago/métodos , Adulto , Anticonvulsivantes/uso terapêutico , Terapia Combinada , Eletrodos Implantados , Eletroencefalografia/estatística & dados numéricos , Epilepsia Parcial Complexa/diagnóstico , Epilepsia Parcial Complexa/cirurgia , Epilepsia Parcial Complexa/terapia , Epilepsia Reflexa/diagnóstico , Epilepsia Reflexa/cirurgia , Epilepsia do Lobo Temporal/diagnóstico , Epilepsia do Lobo Temporal/cirurgia , Epilepsia do Lobo Temporal/terapia , Feminino , Seguimentos , Lateralidade Funcional/fisiologia , Humanos , Estudos Longitudinais , Imageamento por Ressonância Magnética , Masculino , Prognóstico , Resultado do Tratamento