This award recognizes our sustained high performance and our increases in patient volume and satisfaction in an intensely competitive environment. In a surgical procedure at the Medical Center in December, Erinn Elizabeth Farver became the first person in Maryland to receive the device, a vagus nerve stimulator. Inc. It received Food and Drug Administra-tion approval in July. The device consists of a pulse generator and a nerve stimulation electrode, which transmits electrical signals to the brain. The generator, which looks like a pacemaker, is a small round disc two inches in diameter.
Surgeons place the device subcutaneously in the upper part of the chest.
A wire attached to the pulse generator wraps around the vagus nerve in the neck. Stimulation of the nerve interrupts the seizure, no matter where in the brain the seizure originates. The patient s neurologist programs the system automatically to deliver electrical impulses at a specific rate, such as for a 30-second period every five minutes. Patients also can activate the impulses themselves when they feel oncoming seizures by holding a magnet up to the generator. The system is powered by batteries, which need to be replaced about every five years.