Does vagus nerve stimulation improve autonomic function in heart failure and obesity?
Vagus nerve stimulation shows potential for autonomic neuromodulation in heart failure and obesity, but clinical translation from animal models remains a challenge due to off-target side effects.
OBJECTIVE: Neural signals along the vagus nerve (VN) drive many somatic and autonomic functions. The clinical interest of VN stimulation (VNS) is thus potentially huge and has already been demonstrated in epilepsy. However, side effects are often elicited, in addition to the targeted neuromodulation. APPROACH: This review examines the state of the art of VNS applied to two emerging modulations of autonomic function: heart failure and obesity, especially morbid obesity. MAIN RESULTS: We report that VNS may benefit from improved stimulation delivery using very advanced technologies. However, most of the results from fundamental animal studies still need to be demonstrated in humans.
Guiraud et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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