Deans' stroke musings: Improving Stroke Rehabilitation with Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Improving Stroke Rehabilitation with Vagus Nerve Stimulation

I've got 27 posts on vagus nerve back to July 2012. I'm sure there could be a stroke protocol written from those already. But we have shit for brains in stroke leadership, doing absolutely nothing for survivors.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-5804-2_23

Seth A. HaysEmail author

Seth A. Hays
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Email author

1.Texas Biomedical Device CenterRichardsonUSA
2.Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer ScienceThe University of Texas at DallasRichardsonUSA
3.School of Behavioral Brain SciencesThe University of Texas at DallasRichardsonUSA

Chapter

First Online: 22 December 2017

14 Downloads

Part of the Translational Medicine Research book series (TRAMERE)

Abstract

Stroke is a leading cause of neurological damage, with an estimated 795,000 cases reported in the United States each year. A large percentage of patients who suffer a stroke exhibit long-term impairments in motor function. Poststroke rehabilitation in part aims to promote adaptive changes in neural circuits to support recovery of function, but insufficient or maladaptive plasticity often limits benefits. Adjunctive strategies that support plasticity in conjunction with rehabilitation represent a potential means to improve recovery after stroke. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has emerged as one such targeted plasticity strategy, providing phasic activation of neuromodulatory nuclei associated with plasticity. Repeatedly pairing brief bursts of VNS with motor training drives robust, specific plasticity in neural circuits. A number of studies in animal models of stroke and neurological injury demonstrate that VNS paired with rehabilitative training improves recovery of motor function. Moreover, emerging evidence from clinical trials indicates that VNS delivered during rehabilitation promotes functional recovery in stroke patients. Here, we provide a discussion of the existing literature of VNS-based targeted plasticity therapies in the context of stroke and outline challenges for clinical implementation.