Safety of vagus nerve stimulation in a patient with bipolar disorder and an implanted cardioverter-defibrillator.

摘要

We read with great interest the clinical commen tary of Caceres and co-workers entitled 'Applica tion of a vagal nerve stimulator in an epilepsy patient with cardiac pacemaker after post-ictal cardiac arrest' (1). The article reported on the tolerability of a vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) in a patient with a pacemaker. The patient was suffer ing from treatment-resistant temporal lobe epi lepsy. Since a negative effect of the VNS signals on the activity of the pacemaker could not be ruled out, the patient was monitored over a 30-month follow-up. The authors did not observe any adverse effects.