Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Peter S. Staats, MD, MBA is a board-certified physician specializing in pain medicine. Currently, Dr. Staats is seeing patients at Premier Pain Centers, a pain management practice with seven locations throughout New Jersey. He has been consistently recognized as one of the country’s foremost pain management doctors. This includes being named one of America’s Top Doctors by U.S. News and World Report for the last decade, noted as being among the top 1% of pain management physicians in the country. He has been acknowledged as one of New Jersey’s Top Doctors from New Jersey Monthly magazine for the past seven years. Dr. Staats was also the recipient of the Outstanding Pain Physician award, a national recognition as selected by his peers in the interventional pain medicine community.Dr. Staats is certified by the National Board of Medical Examiners, the American Board of Pain Medicine, and the American Board of Anesthesiology. He is also a fellow of the World Institute of Pain and the North American Neuromodulation Society. He is the author of over 200 articles, abstracts and chapters regarding pain management, and has written several books on the science of pain medicine. Dr. Ayata is a Neurologist and a clinician-scientist dedicated to translational research on neurovascular function and dysfunction. He explores therapies to augment perfusion and oxygenation in acute stroke (e.g., hyperoxia, induced hypertension, Rho-kinase inhibition), the pathophysiological roles of injury depolarizations in stroke, and targeting spreading depression in migraine. Dr. Ayata is expert in non-invasive in vivo investigations of cerebrovascular physiology and pathophysiology in mice under full systemic physiological control. In collaboration with Dr. Joutel, Dr. Ayata defined a novel enhanced CSD-susceptibility phenotype in Notch3R90C mutant mice, providing an explanation for the increased incidence and severity of migraine with aura in CADASIL patients. Dr. Lerman is a board-certified neurologist who specializes in pain management. He has extensive experience in ultrasound guidance for interventional pain procedures and interventional headache treatment, teaching and speaking nationally on these subjects. As an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine, Dr. Lerman carries out numerous clinical trials at UC San Diego Medical Center, the Altman Clinical Trial Research Institute, and the VA San Diego Healthcare System. His clinical reasarch studies primarily focus on understanding the impact of neurotechnologies (e.g. spinal cord stimulation, vagal nerve stimulation, and other central and peripheral nerve stimulation) on pain, learning and mental health disorders.. Dr. Lerman is a founding board member of the American Interventional Headache Society, faculty and founding member of the Regenerative Medicine special interest group within the American Society of Regional Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, and faculty member for the World Academy of Pain Medicine Ultrasonography. Dr. Alaa Abd-Elsayed joined the faculty of the Anesthesiology Department at the University of Wisconsin in 2014 to provide Chronic Pain Medicine Services as part of the Interventional Pain Program. He received his medical training at Assiut University Medical School in Egypt, completed a master’s degree in Public Health, research fellowship at Cleveland Clinic, and residency in anesthesiology and pain management fellowship at University of Cincinnati. As part of the Interventional Pain Program, Dr. Abd-Elsayed evaluates patients at the Pain Clinic, and when an interventional pain treatment is appropriate, performs procedures at the Madison Surgery Center. Over the course of his career, he has received numerous research grants, published more than 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts and authored several editorials and book chapters. He has presented at more than 60 international and national conferences and has earned more than 15 awards at the state and national levels. In addition, he has served as a reviewer for more than 20 journals and as an editor to several journals.

Section 1: Why is the vagus getting so much attention
1. Vagus insufficiency syndrome
2. Randomized controlled studies do not reflect the complexity of chronic disease, including the vagal response
3. Vagus nerve stimulator (VNS)—What the surgeon needs to know
4. Noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation: History, mechanisms, indications, and obstacles
5. Exploring vagus nerve stimulation through the lens of the polyvagal theory
Section 2: Neurological conditions
6. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of epilepsy
7. Noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation in migraine treatment
8. Vagal nerve stimulation in rare headache disorders
9. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of traumatic brain injury
Section 3: Evolving therapy for neurologic conditions
10. Vagus nerve stimulation in acute stroke: Review based on current modalities and emerging trends
11. Using vagus nerve stimulation to direct synaptic plasticity and treat neurological disease
12. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of tinnitus
13. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of neurodegenerative disorders
14. Vagal nerve stimulation for cognitive and performance enhancement
15. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of chronic pain
Section 4: Psychiatric and somatic conditions
16. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of depression and anxiety
17. Application of vagal nerve stimulation to post-traumatic stress disorder
18. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of fibromyalgia
19. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of visceral pain
20. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of addiction disorders
Section 5: Conventional inflammatory conditions
21. Vagal nerve stimulation for the management of sepsis
22. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of immunemediated inflammatory diseases
23. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of inflammatory bowel disease and the cholinergic antiinflammatory pathway
24. Clinical applications of vagal nerve stimulation for gastrointestinal motility disorders and chronic abdominal pain
25. Treatment of acute asthma exacerbations with vagus nerve stimulation
26. Metabolic syndrome: Understanding its root cause, and the role of macrophages and why vagus nerve stimulation may be an effective treatment
27. Vagus nerve stimulation for the management of obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome
28. Vagus nerve stimulation and kidney function
29. The neural tourniquet
30. Vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of heart failure
31. Vagus nerve stimulation for long COVID
32. Vagal nerve stimulation applications in oncology