Human vagus nerve electrophysiology - A guide to vagus nerve stimulation parameters

The authors studied human vagus nerve electrophysiology intraoperatively on 21 patients (age range: 4 to 31 years) during implantation of a vagus nerv e stimulator for seizure control. The study was performed with direct elect rical stimulation of the vagus nerve with various stimulation parameters re sembling those employed by the Cyberonics NeuroCybernetic Prosthesis System (Houston, TX), which is used clinically for vagus nerve stimulation for tr eatment of seizures. Recordings were made directly from the rostral end of the vagus nerve. The response of the vagus nerve to various stimulus parame ters in patients of different ages was studied. Based on the vagus nerve ch aracteristics, age-related adjustments for stimulus parameters were recomme nded.