Vagus Nerve Society
Education and Training
Education and Training
Video Education
Pain Talks Education – Season 1 Episode 5: Vagal Nerve Stimulation – What’s New?
– Dr Peter Staats (President World Institute of Pain)
Women’s Health Webinar with special guest Dr. Peter Staats
Redefining Medicine with special guest Dr. Peter Staats
Dr. Peter Staats is the Chief Medical Officer of National Spine & Pain Centers. He is recognized as one of the country’s foremost interventional pain management doctors, having been named among the top 1 percent of pain management physicians in the country byU.S. News and World Report. He founded the division of Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesia at Johns Hopkins University, where he served as the director for more than a decade. In 2003, he co-founded Premier Pain Centers of New Jersey, now an affiliate practice of National Spine & Pain Centers.
New Directions in Bioelectric Medicine
Dr. Peter Staats is widely published, having edited or authored numerous textbooks on pain medicine. He has also written more than 450 articles, book chapters and abstracts on the diagnosis and management of complex pain problems for prominent publications such as JAMA, Lancet, Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine and others. He has received research grants from numerous sources numerous and his patents have led to new approaches for pain management.
Original Research Articles:
Understanding the Pivotal Role of the Vagus Nerve in Health from Pandemics
Claire-Marie Rangon 1, and Adam Niezgoda 2
1 Child Neurologist and Pain Specialist, INWE’CARE Medical Center, 92210 Saint-Cloud, France 2 Chair and Department of Neurology, University of Medical Sciences, 60-355 Pozna ´n, Poland
The COVID-19 pandemic seems endless with the regular emergence of new variants. Is the SARS-CoV-2 virus particularly evasive to the immune system, or is it merely disrupting communication between the body and the brain, thus pre-empting homeostasis? Retrospective analysis of the COVID-19 and AIDS pandemics, as well as prion disease, emphasizes the pivotal but little-known role of the 10th cranial nerve in health. Considering neuroimmunometabolism from the point of view of the vagus nerve, non-invasive bioengineering solutions aiming at monitoring and stimulating the vagal tone are subsequently discussed as the next optimal and global preventive treatments, far beyond pandemics.
Proof of concept: short-term non-invasive cervical vagus nerve stimulation in patients with drug-refractory gastroparesis
Emma Paulon,1 Despoina Nastou,1 Francesca Jaboli,1 Juana Marin,2 Eric Liebler,3 Owen Epstein1
1Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK 2NIHR-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK 3electroCore, LLC, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, USA
Nerve Stimulation Promotes Resolution of Inflammation
Summary: Electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve promotes healing in those with acute inflammation by shifting the balance between inflammatory and anti-inflammatory molecules.
Source: Karolinska Institute
The nervous system is known to communicate with the immune system and regulate inflammation in the body. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now show how electrical activation of a specific nerve can promote healing in acute inflammation.
Non-invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation for COVID-19: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial (SAVIOR I)
Background: Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is characterized, in part, by an excessive inflammatory response. Evidence from animal and human studies suggests that vagus nerve stimulation can lead to reduced levels of various biomarkers of inflammation. We conducted a prospective randomized controlled study (SAVIOR-I) to assess the feasibility, efficacy, and safety of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) for the treatment of respiratory symptoms and inflammatory markers among patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04368156).
Noninvasive VNS Shown Effective For Symptoms of Vestibular Migraine
Noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation provided rapid relief of vertigo and headache pain caused by acute vestibular migraine (VM), the most common neurologic cause of vertigo, according to a study using retrospective chart review. The study of 18 patients (Neurology 2019;93[18]: e1715-e1719), conducted at a single tertiary referral center between November 2017 and January 2019, found noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) reduced vertigo severity in 13 of 14 patients and offered “complete resolution” in two. Mean headache severity improved more than 63% according to the analysis, which included 16 women, but there was no improvement in interictal dizziness.
Understanding the Pivotal Role of the Vagus Nerve in Health from Pandemics
Claire-Marie Rangon and Adam Niezgoda
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic seems endless with the regular emergence of new variants. Is the SARS-CoV-2 virus particularly evasive to the immune system, or is it merely disrupting communication between the body and the brain, thus pre-empting homeostasis? Retrospective analysis of the COVID-19 and AIDS pandemics, as well as prion disease, emphasizes the pivotal but littleknown role of the 10th cranial nerve in health. Considering neuroimmunometabolism from the point of view of the vagus nerve, non-invasive bioengineering solutions aiming at monitoring and stimulating the vagal tone are subsequently discussed as the next optimal and global preventive treatments, far beyond pandemics.
The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway in chronic kidneydisease—review and vagus nerve stimulation clinical pilot study
Marie Hilderman1 and Annette Bruchfeld1,2
ABSTRAC: TInflammation and autonomic dysfunction are common find-ings in chronic and end-stage kidney disease and contribute to amarkedly increased risk of mortality in this patient population.The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP) is a vagalneuro-immune circuit that upholds the homoeostatic balanceof inflammatory activity in response to cell injury and patho-gens. CAP models have been examined in preclinical studies toinvestigate its significance in a range of clinical inflammatoryconditions and diseases. More recently, cervical vagus nervestimulation (VNS) implants have been shown to be of potentialbenefit for patients with chronic autoimmune diseases such asrheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease. We havepreviously shown that dialysis patients have a functional CAPex vivo. Here we review the field and the potential role of theCAP in acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease (CKD)as well as in hypertension. We also present a VNS pilot study inhaemodialysis patients. Controlling inflammation by neuroim-mune modulation may lead to new therapeutic modalities forimproved treatment, outcome, prognosis and quality of life forpatients with CKD.