The role of vagus nerve stimulation in the treatment of refractory epilepsy: Clinical outcomes and impact on quality of life

Background: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is used as a complementary therapy to pharmacolo-gical treatment in patients with refractory epilepsy. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of VNS in reducing seizure frequency, severity, and duration; reducing the number of antiepileptic drugs administered; and improving patient's; quality of life. Material and methods: We analysed the clinical progression of 70 patients with refractory epilepsy treated with VNS at Hospital Universitario de Alicante and Hospital Cl & iacute;nico de Valencia. Data were collected before and after the procedure. The difference in seizure frequency pre -and post-VNS was classified using the McHugh scale. Data were also collected on seizure duration and severity, the number of drugs administered, and quality of life. Results: According to the McHugh classification, 12.86% of the patients were Class I, 44.29% were Class II, 40% were Class III, and the remaining 2.86% of patients were Class IV-V. A >= 50% reduction in seizure frequency was observed in 57.15% of patients. Improvements were observed in seizure duration in 88% of patients and in seizure severity in 68%; the number of drugs administered was reduced in 66% of patients, and 93% reported better quality of life. Conclusions: VNS is effective for reducing seizure frequency, duration, and severity and the number of antiepileptic drugs administered. It also enables an improvement in patient's quality of life. O 2019 Sociedad Espa & ntilde;ola de Neurolog & iacute;a. Published by Elsevier Espa & ntilde;a, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/ 4.0/).