FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 25, 2000
Contact: Amy C. Kretchmer
(732) 632-1586
NEW JERSEY NEUROSCIENCE INSTITUTE PHYSICIAN FIRST IN STATE TO UTILIZE NEW EPILEPSY TREATMENT
Kenneth M. Liebman, M.D., of East Brunswick, a staff neurosurgeon at the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute at JFK Medical Center in Edison, and co-director of the Cerebral Vascular Center of Central New Jersey, is the first physician in the state to surgically implant a Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS), the first new approach to the treatment of epilepsy in more than 100 years.
VNS implantation was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1997, after 15 years of research and clinical studies, as an add-on therapy in reducing the frequency of seizures in adults and adolescents over 12 years of age who have partial epileptic seizures that resist control by other methods. Some of the promising benefits of this new treatment include: decreasing the number of seizures; less severe or shorter seizures; arresting seizures in progress; better mood; improved alertness, memory or cognition; and/or fewer emergency room visits.
The therapy is designed to prevent seizures by sending small regular pulses of electrical energy to the brain via the vagus nerve, a large nerve in the neck. The vagus nerve is one of the primary communication lines from the major organs of the body to the brain.
The pulses of electrical energy are delivered by a flat, round battery, about the size of a silver dollar. Thin wires (nerve stimulators) are threaded under the skin and twisted around the vagus nerve in the neck. The vagus nerve has proven to be a good way to communicate with the brain because:
- there are few, if any, pain fibers in the vagus nerve
- more than 80 percent of the electrical signals applied to the vagus nerve in the neck are sent upwards to the brain
- the stimulation lead from the device may be attached to the vagus nerve in a surgical procedure, which does not involve the brain and is not brain surgery
The VNS is surgically implanted in the chest and neck in a procedure that takes between 45 and 90 minutes. Only two small incisions are made: one on the side of the neck for the nerve stimulators and a second small chest incision for the battery. The devise is inserted as an outpatient procedure. The only evidence of surgery will be a slight bulge in the chest and two small scars where the incisions were made.
The VNS therapy works in two ways: physician programmed stimulation and on-demand stimulation. For the physician programmed stimulation, the VNS therapy is administered through a special wand to "talk" to and program the 24-hour, seven day a week "dose" of periodic stimulation, which is automatically delivered. The on-demand stimulation is used when the patient or caregiver senses a seizure coming on and passes a special magnet over the chest area where the battery is implanted to activate an extra, on-demand stimulation.
Liebman who is board certified in neurosurgery specializes in adult neurological surgery with a special interest in neurovascular pathology and is board certified in neurosurgery. As a graduate of Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pa., he completed his internship in surgery at Temple University Hospital. Liebman’s residency in neurosurgery was completed at Thomas Jefferson Hospital also in Philadelphia.
In addition to his professional appointments, Liebman is an assistant professor of neuroscience at Seton Hall University’s School of Graduate Medical Education in South Orange. His professional memberships include the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the American Medical Association.
The New Jersey Neuroscience Institute at JFK Medical Center is a comprehensive center designed exclusively for the diagnosis, treatment and research of complex neurologic disorders in adults and children. Services available through the Neuroscience Institute include programs in vascular disorders (aneurysms, strokes), dizziness and balance disorders, epilepsy, spine and brain tumors, cerebral palsy, movement disorders, sleep disorders, and neuromuscular disorders.