Vegetative-state patient responds to experimental medication after 15 years

French investigators tell they restored some Symptoms of consciousness in a brain-injured Person who hadn't shown any awareness in 15 years. During months of experimental treatment, his gaze can follow a moving object & he turned his head toward people speaking to him. The curing participate implanting a device in the man's chest to electrically stimulate the vagus nerve, that expands into the brain. Most experimental treatments for the vegetative state have failed to display improvement, said Dr. James Bernat, emeritus professor of neurology & medicine at Dartmouth College in Hanover, Fresh Hampshire. RELATED STORIES:First gene medication — 'a true living drug' — on the cusp of Food and Drug Administration approvalA 'sci-fi' Cancer disease medication fights brain tumors, research findsParent-led autism medication shows lasting benefits

Man in vegetative state for 15 years responds to Fresh therapy

A 35-year-old Person who had been in a vegetative state for 15 years is showing Symptoms of consciousness after receiving a pioneering curing based on nerve stimulation. The investigators said the findings probably defy the view which a vegetative state which lasts for further than twelve months is irreversible. The vagus nerve connects the brain to many other portions of the body, including the gut. Changes in brain activity probably display which the patient has shifted from being in a vegetative state to being in a state of minimal consciousness. That is, consciousness remembers severely altered but, in contrast to the vegetative state, there is minimal however definite behavioural directory of self or environmental awareness.

Vegetative-state patient responds to therapy

as declared in Doctors treated the 35-year-old, infective in a vehicle accident, by an experimental medication which participate implanting a nerve stimulator into his chest. Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) probably not work as effectively in patients by different patterns of brain damage. After 1 30 days of vagal nerve stimulation, the patient's mom announced he had an got better ability to stay awake while listening to his therapist reading a book. Ms Sirigu said: "Brain plasticity & brain reform are continue possible even while wish seems to have vanished. "It is difficulty to know based on a single status the method likely this curing is to work in the general patient population."

collected by :Lucy William