Recently, NYU Langone Medical Center became the first hospital outside of a clinical trial site to implant a pacemaker-like device in the brain that may be a game changer for patients with epilepsy.
The device called the RNS System was implanted by Werner Doyle MD, an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at NYU Langone in a patient with seizures that previously could not be controlled with medication. The patient has recovered completely from the surgery.
The RNS System manufactured by NeuroPace Inc. of Mountain View California is a responsive stimulation device implanted in the skull along with brain electrodes to detect abnormal electrical activity in the brain associated with seizures.
Prior to this surgery, the only implants of the seizure-reducing medical device took place at medical centers that had previously researched the device’s effectiveness and safety. NYU Langone is the first non-study hospital in the U.S. in the New York metropolitan area to offer the RNS System to patients.
After two or more weeks of recording the activity, doctors were able to program the device to specifically respond to these abnormal signals by delivering imperceptible electrical pulses to the brain that normalizes the activity. The device reboots the portion of the brain where the seizure is originating, thereby effectively interrupting the abnormal electrical activity before it spreads or causes unwanted effects.
It was found that in clinical trials performed at medical centers in the U.S., 55 percent of the patients experienced a 50 percent or greater reduction in seizures two years post implantation. The RNS System received premarket approval from FDA last November to treat patients’ seizures that have not been controlled by two or more antiepileptic medications.