Neuromodulation for Epilepsy

Abstract

Several palliative neuromodulation treatment modalities are currently available for adjunctive use in the treatment of medically intractable epilepsy. Over the past decades, a variety of different central and peripheral nervous system sites have been identified, clinically and experimentally, as potential targets for chronic, nonresponsive therapeutic neurostimulation. Currently, the main modalities in clinical use, from most invasive to least invasive, are anterior thalamus deep brain stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation, and trigeminal nerve stimulation. Significant reductions in seizure frequency have been demonstrated in clinical trials using each of these neuromodulation therapies.

Keywords: Deep brain stimulation (DBS); Intractable; Neurostimulation; Refractory seizures; Trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS); Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).