Medtronic is introducing in the United States its deep brain stimulation therapy (DBS) as an option for treating drug-resistant epilepsy.
About a third of epilepsy patients don’t respond positively to existing drug regimens, leaving patients with little recourse against the disease. DBS therapy involves delivering small pulses of electric current to the anterior nucleus of the thalamus. This part of the brain is usually part of a network through which seizures propagate, and stimulating it has shown to help disrupt seizures.
The therapy is indicated for adult patients who have tried three different drugs already and the approval was based on the SANTE trial that showed a 75% reduction in the median seizure frequency seven years after implantation, an impressive result.
“The commercial availability of DBS provides an important surgical treatment option for patients who suffer from epilepsy and do not respond to medication,” said Robert E. Gross, M.D., Ph.D., MBNA chair & professor, Emory University Department of Neurosurgery, neurosurgical primary investigator for the SANTE trial. “ANT DBS has been shown to significantly reduce the frequency and severity of seizures and improve quality of life out to seven years. The first patient implanted since commercialization is doing very well. While it has only been 2 months since the system was turned on, his frequency of seizures has declined by more than 50 percent, and we expect improvement to increase further with additional programming sessions.”
Flashbacks: Medtronic’s DBS Therapy for Epilepsy May Yet Get FDA Approval…; Medtronic DBS Therapy for Epilepsy Gets a Go in Europe…; Medtronic to Seek FDA Approval of Brain Stimulation Device for Epilepsy…; Promising Results Released in Controlling Epilepsy via Deep Brain Stimulation…; Medtronic’s Deep Brain Stimulators With Recording Function Implanted in First U.S. Patients…
Via: Medtronic…