About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
What you can expect
By Mayo Clinic staff
During the surgery
Surgery to implant the vagus nerve stimulation device is done either on an outpatient basis, allowing you go to home that same day, or on an inpatient basis, requiring an overnight stay in the hospital. The surgery usually takes one to two hours. You may remain awake but have medication to numb the surgery area (local anesthesia) or you may be unconscious during the surgery (general anesthesia).
The surgery itself doesn't involve your brain. The pulse generator is implanted in the upper left side of your chest. The device is meant to be a permanent implant, but it can be removed if necessary. The pulse generator is about the size of a stopwatch and runs on battery power. A lead wire is connected to the pulse generator. The lead wire is guided under your skin from your chest up to your neck, where it's attached to the left vagus nerve through a second incision.
After the procedure
The pulse generator is turned on during a visit to your doctor's office a few weeks after surgery. Then it can be programmed to deliver electrical impulses to the vagus nerve at various durations, frequencies and currents. Vagus nerve stimulation usually starts at a low level and is gradually increased, depending on your symptoms and side effects.
Stimulation typically lasts for 30 seconds and occurs every five minutes. You may have some tingling sensations or slight pain in your neck during episodes of nerve stimulation.
You'll be given a hand-held magnetic device so that you can control the stimulation yourself. This enables you to temporarily turn off the vagus nerve stimulation, which may be necessary when you do activities such as public speaking, singing or exercising, or when you're eating if you have swallowing problems.
You must visit your doctor periodically to make sure that the pulse generator is working correctly and that it hasn't shifted out of position.
- Dougherty DD, et al. Vagus nerve stimulation. In: Stern TA, et al. Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/205162974-3/0/1657/451.html?tocnode=57543416&fromURL=451.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-04743-2..50048-2--cesec4_1191. Accessed June 10, 2010.
- George MS, et al. Nompharmacological somatic treatments. In: Hales RE, et al. The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry. 5th ed. Arlington, Va.: American Psychiatric Publishing; 2008. http://www.psychiatryonline.com/content.aspx?aID=332262. Accessed June 14, 2010.
- VNS Therapy system — P970003s050. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/DeviceApprovalsandClearances/Recently-ApprovedDevices/ucm078532.htm. Accessed June 14, 2010.
- Grimm S, et al. Efficacy of vagus nerve stimulation in the treatment of depression. Expert Reviews of Neurotherapeutics. 2010;10:87.
- Implantation procedure. Cybertronics. http://dynamic.cyberonics.com/manuals/doc_download.asp?docid={D6761ECC-D653-4175-84CB-E8C4AF92645D}. Accessed June 14, 2010.
- Schachter SS, et al. Vagus nerve stimulation therapy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed June 10, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on