Local teen becomes Long Island’s first to receive nerve implant

Bill San Antonio

Nnamdi Chukwuma had experienced seizures throughout his life, first when he was six months old and then more intensively as he got older, treating the episodes with a carousel of medications that worked all too infrequently.

But doctors at North Shore University Hospital’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Center suggested Chukwuma, 17, of Bay Shore, might be a perfect candidate for a new vagus nerve treatment to implant a device that would predict forthcoming seizures by tracking his heart rate, called the AspireSR.

Chukwuma was the first patient on Long Island to receive the implant, health system officials said.

“For those patients who do not respond well to anti-seizure medications, vagus nerve stimulation therapy is another alternative to treat debilitating seizures,” said Dr. Ashesh Mehta, the director of epilepsy surgery at North Shore-LIJ Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Center. 

The operation is a one-hour procedure during which two cuts are made at the left side of the neck and chest area, beneath the collarbone, where the device is then placed beneath the skin connecting a small wire to the left vagus nerve.

Two weeks after the operation, the patient returns to have the generator’s stimulation turned on and adjusted based on the patient’s comfort level to counteract oncoming seizures.

“Delivering [vagus nerve stimulation] therapy through the AspireSR generator is beneficial in that it is the first and only therapy that provides responsive stimulation to the brain once the generator detects the sudden spike in heart rate that often predicts oncoming seizures,” Mehta said. 

“In Nnmadi’s case, he was a perfect candidate to receive the AspireSR implant because seizures are coming from multiple areas of his brain and we have determined using EEG tests that his heart rate reliably speeds up at the beginning of his seizures,” he added. “Another advantage is the minimal invasiveness of this procedure, which may be performed as an outpatient.”

Chukwuma was not made available for comment.

Patients typically experience improvement in their seizures three to six months following the surgery, health system officials said.

After 10 years, the device is replaced to maintain seizure control, which also takes place as an outpatient procedure.

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