Albany Medical Center is offering a new
device designed to help control seizures in
patients with epilepsy by detecting a sudden
increase in heart rate.
owners in 2016.
The device is only implantable at Level
4 epilepsy centers such as Albany Medical
Center. A Level 4 rating from the National
Association of Epilepsy Centers indicates a
center offers the most advanced medical and
surgical treatment options for epilepsy.
Hospital officials said the AspireSR vagal
nerve stimulator, similar to a pacemaker, is
implanted under the skin in the chest. When
the device detects a sudden increase in heart
rate, which accompanies the early stage of a
seizure, it attempts to electrically interrupt
the seizure before the patient loses consciousness
by sending an electrical impulse through
a small wire connecting the device to the
vagus nerve.
While vagus nerve stimulation has been
a common treatment for epileptic seizures
since the late 1990s, Albany Med neurologist
Dr. Anthony Ritaccio said the AspireSR device
has a better ability to detect and treat seizures
before they occur.
“Previous models of vagus nerve stimulators
required patient action to trigger an
electrical impulse to the brain once the seizure
had already begun,” said Ritaccio, director
of Albany Med’s Epilepsy and Human Brain
Mapping Program and J. Spencer Standish
professor of neurology and neurosurgery at
Albany Medical College. “The AspireSR has
the ability to detect a seizure before it has
begun, even while a patient is asleep. Our
hope is that this will significantly decrease the
number of seizures our patients experience
and improve their quality of life.”
“We are pleased to be able to offer a minimally
invasive option to both our adult and
pediatric patients who do not respond well
to medication and who are not candidates
for brain surgery,” said Dr. Matthew Adamo,
associate professor of neurosurgery at Albany
Med.
Albany Med performed its first surgery
with the device in early July and has implanted
five devices to date. The epilepsy program
expects to implant 30-40 devices per year.
Albany Med’s Epilepsy and Human Brain
Mapping Program, which is part of the Neurosciences
Institute, evaluates more than 350
patients each year in its inpatient epilepsy
monitoring unit (EMU), officials said. The
EMU offers the most technologically sophisticated
monitoring experience available,
including wireless brainwave recording. Brain
mapping techniques are used to locate areas
of the brain important for language, memory
and movement to safely guide surgical tissue
removal in order to stop the seizures.
To learn more about Albany Med’s epilepsy
program and how neurologists and neurosurgeons
have helped patients overcome epilepsy,
visit www.amc.edu/neuro.