The vagus nerve is one of the most important, yet most under-appreciated structures of the human body. It is the tenth cranial nerve innervating many of the visceral structures of the human body. It has been called the “wandering” nerve, given its ubiquitous and meandering course throughout the body. The major branch of the parasympathetic nervous system, it optimizes the body’s state of rest, relaxation and recovery and is necessary to optimize health. It is a counterbalance to the sympathetic nervous system, which regulates the body’s fight or flight response. Containing over 160,000 fibers, it has both afferent and efferent branches, providing information to the brain on the status of the body’s organs. The brain then sends signals back down the vagus nerve to optimize bodily functions. Vagus nerve stimulation is a new frontier in medicine, tapping into the body’s intrinsic capability to optimize an organ’s function, control systemic inflammation and modify diseases without drugs. The use of non-implanted vagus nerve stimulators has made it possible to move neuromodulation up the treatment continuum, and has facilitated access for clinical evaluation and treatment. Scientists now have the ability to translate the basic science into clinical practice without the need for surgical intervention. Vagus Nerve Stimulation serves as a compendium of current knowledge about stimulating the vagus nerve in many different disease states. Chapters include applications to neurologic conditions, psychiatric conditions, inflammatory conditions, metabolic disease, reperfusion injuries, long covid, cardiac disease and even optimizing performance in healthy individuals.
Author Biography:
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.
