Background: Vagus nerve stimulation is a palliative treatment for patients with refractory epilepsy; however, the misplacement of electrodes may cause complications and thus needs to be avoided.
Methods: We herein report an intraoperative monitoring technique to prevent the misplacement of electrodes. Endotracheal tube electrodes were inserted to record electromyographic activity from the vocal cords and identify the vagus nerve. Electromyography electrodes were placed on the sternomastoid muscle, sternohyoid muscle, geniohyoid muscle, and trapezius muscle to record muscle activities innervated by the ansa cervicalis. The vagus nerve and ansa cervicalis were electrically stimulated during surgery, and electromyography of the vocal cords and muscles innervated by the ansa cervicalis was recorded. The threshold of vagus nerve activation ranged between 0.05 and 0.75 mA.
Results: The vagus nerve was successfully identified and differentiated from the nerve root of the ansa cervicalis using this technique.
Conclusions: Intraoperative monitoring of the vagus nerve and ansa cervicalis is useful for safe and effective vagus nerve stimulation.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2019.07.210 | DOI Listing |
J Neurophysiol
January 2025
Institute for Pathophysiology, West German Heart and Vascular Centre, University of Essen Medical School, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
Low-Level Tragus Stimulation [LL-TS] as a non-invasive technique of vagus nerve stimulation [VNS] moves to the fore in autonomic nervous system [ANS] studies as a non-drug based, easy applicable tool. LL-TS triggering a complex systemic response may offer a broader cardioprotective potential than expected as a recent investigation outlined blood pressure [BP] reduction by LL-TS in patients with hypertension which is commonly related to imbalance of the ANS as several other cardiovascular diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGastroenterol Rep (Oxf)
January 2025
Department of Gastroenterology-Hepatology, NUTRIM Institute of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Dysfunction of the vagus nerve has been suggested as a contributing factor in various gastrointestinal disorders, prompting interest in vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) as a non-pharmacological therapy. We performed a systematic review to determine the efficacy of invasive and non-invasive VNS in gastrointestinal disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), functional dyspepsia (FD), functional constipation, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and gastroparesis. We applied a systematic search of the literature in the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases in order to identify studies comparing VNS with an adequate control condition (sham stimulation) in patients with gastrointestinal disorders.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCogn Neurodyn
December 2025
College of Precision Instruments and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 China.
Motor planning plays a pivotal role in daily life. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has been demonstrated to enhance decision-making efficiency, illustrating its potential use in cognitive modulation. However, current research primarily focuses on behavioral and single-modal electrophysiological signal, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedicina (Kaunas)
January 2025
Department of Neurosurgery, University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Carol Davila", 030147 Bucharest, Romania.
: The Index of Response to Stimulation (IRES) is a new index that we introduce in this study to grade the effectiveness of vagus nerve stimulation in the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy. We assessed 76 patients at 6, 12, and 18 months after VNS evaluating improvement with the IRES in four key dimensions: seizure duration decrease, seizure intensity decrease, improvement in quality of life, and seizure frequency decrease. This scale goes from 0, meaning no improvement, to 8, meaning maximal improvement, making the scale a really good measure of clinical utility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNat Commun
January 2025
The Fleischer Institute for Diabetes and Metabolism, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA.
The visceral organ-brain axis, mediated by vagal sensory neurons, is essential for maintaining various physiological functions. Here, we investigate the impact of liver-projecting vagal sensory neurons on energy balance, hepatic steatosis, and anxiety-like behavior in mice under obesogenic conditions. A small subset of vagal sensory neurons innervate the liver and project centrally to the nucleus of the tractus solitarius, area postrema, and dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus, and peripherally to the periportal areas in the liver.
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