NERVE IMPLANT TO HELP ARTHRITIS SUFFERERS

Medical Centre in Amsterdam Presents 'Positive' Initial Findings

Long-term sufferers of arthritis are being offered new hope as patients at a medical centre in Amsterdam were cured using an innovative electronic implant. Twenty patients at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam have been implanted with a device that stimulates the vagus nerve, which joins the brain to the major organs and is responsible for important functions such as breathing. Researchers were able to reduce the activity of the spleen, a key organ in the immune system, by bombarding the vagus nerve with impulses for as little as three minutes a day. Within a few days they observed that the organ emitted fewer chemicals and immune cells that provoke the irregular inflammation of the joints experienced by people with rheumatoid arthritis.

The system will hopefully do away with the need for patients to take medication and would allow them to have a better standard of life. According to Paul-Peter Tak, a rheumatologist at the hospital “we may be able to achieve remission in 20% to 30% of patients, which would be a huge step forward in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.” The full findings will be available sometime later this year, but researchers already know over fifty percent of patients have shown major improvement. Clinicians expect the nerve stimulator could be used extensively within ten years.