Outpatient vagus nerve stimulation surgery in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy with severe intellectual disability

Purpose Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) implantation is increasingly proposed in outpatient procedure. Some epilepsy syndromes are associated with severe neurodevelopmental disabilities (intellectual disability, autism) and often motor or sensory handicaps, making ambulatory surgery more complex. Methods We prospectively assessed the feasibility safety of VNS 26 adult patients drug-resistant intellectual disability between December 2017 October 2020. Results The male-to-female ratio was 0.9 mean age on day 23.1 years. Seventeen (65.4%) suffered from epileptic encephalopathy, 7 (26.9%) cryptogenic genetic generalized epilepsy, 2 (7.7%) multifocal epilepsy. Postoperatively, all were discharged surgery. No patient admitted to a hospital have consulted within one month due postoperative complications. There no surgery-related complication during patients’ follow-up. Conclusion Our study highlights an setting for disability. report detailed protocol preoperative checklist optimize these not able-bodied patients. Severe epilepsy-associated handicaps should be exclusion criterion when considering implantation.