Epilepsy 'pacemaker'

[Dr Mordrid]

LOS ANGELES, July 25 (UPI)

U.S. scientists say they have developed a unique nerve-stimulation treatment for people unable to control their epileptic seizures with medication or surgery.

The device developed by neuroscientists at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and the Valencia, Calif.-based, Advanced Bionics Corp., is a trigeminal nerve stimulator that uses a "brain pacemaker" to stimulate a nerve involved in inhibiting seizures.

The trigeminal nerve extends into the brain from the face and forehead, and is known to play a role in seizure inhibition. The stimulator and electrodes used to transmit an electrical current to the nerve can be worn externally or implanted.

The technology and results of a successful pilot human clinical trial are detailed in the July edition of the peer-reviewed journal Epilepsia.

Dr. Mordrid

[Nowhere]

Do you have any more details? For example, if the stimulation works all the time or only when the device detects that seizures "are coming"?
Either way I can imagine this as beeing better than medication/surgery when it comes to side effects...

[Dr Mordrid]

It's very likely a demand device with sensors and a computer to look out for anomalous brain waveforms, which if detected fires the trigeminal nerve stimulator.

[MultimediaMan]

All of the people I know or have known (not all are living, I'm afraid) who are were prone to seizures said that they "know" when one is coming; they usually have from a couple of minutes to an hour before it occurs. Three were epileptic (Howard and Eric died years ago, but Charlie is still doing OK), and one, my cousin Alex, has waged a bitter fight with a recurring brain tumor for the past 5 years; he only started getting seizures after the surgeries - his come rather quickly, but again, he knows when it's coming. So, based on that very limited sample, I would think it might be possible and effective to trigger the device via remote control...

[Dr Mordrid]

Some epileptics are rapid onset & have little warning. Many of them have helper dogs that can sense an impending seizure and alert their unsuspecting owner so the can sit/lay down. God knows how they do it.

Mans best friend strikes again