Journal article

Maternal and fetal outcomes associated with vagus nerve stimulation during pregnancy

A Sabers, D Battino, E Bonizzoni, J Craig, D Lindhout, E Perucca, SV Thomas, T Tomson, F Vajda

Epilepsy Research | ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV | Published : 2017

Abstract

Objective To access the effect of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) on the outcome of pregnancy. Methods We used the International Registry of Antiepileptic Drugs and Pregnancy (EURAP) and its network to search for women receiving adjunctive VNS during pregnancy. Data on maternal and fetal outcomes were extracted from the registry databases and outcomes were evaluated. Results Twenty-six pregnancies were identified in 25 women. All women were exposed to a relative high VNS stimulation level (mean duty cycle 18%, range 5%–51%). Most women had seizures during pregnancy and almost 70% were on antiepileptic drug (AED) polytherapy. The proportion of women with obstetrical interventions was 53.9% (95%..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Netherlands Epilepsy Foundation (NEF)


Funding Acknowledgements

EURAP has received financial support from the following pharmaceutical companies: Bial, Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen-Cilag, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and UCB, from Netherlands Epilepsy Foundation (NEF) grant 03-18 (DL) and from Stockholm County Council, ALF (TT). The sponsors had no influence on the conduct of the study, analysis, interpretation, writing of the manuscript or the decision to publish the results.