Patent ID: 8688212

Claim:
An implantable neurostimulator for managing bradycardia through vagus nerve stimulation, comprising: an implantable neurostimulator configured to deliver electrical therapeutic stimulation in a manner that results in creation and propagation in both afferent and efferent directions of action potentials within neuronal fibers comprising a cervical vagus nerve of a patient, further comprising: an internal recordable memory configured to store an operating mode of a pulse generator, comprising parametrically defining maintenance doses of the electrical therapeutic stimulation tuned to restore cardiac autonomic balance through continuously-cycling, intermittent and periodic electrical pulses; the pulse generator configured to therapeutically deliver the maintenance doses to the vagus nerve through a pair of helical-electrodes via an electrically coupled nerve stimulation therapy lead independent of cardiac cycle; a physiological sensor configured to monitor the patient's physiology, and upon sensing with the physiological sensor a condition indicative of bradycardia, suspend the delivery of the maintenance doses by the pulse generator to the vagus nerve; and a controller configured to wait a progressively increasing amount of time, each progressively increasing amount of time having a time period greater than a time period of an initial delay, and, upon sensing a condition indicative of an absence or termination of the bradycardia after suspension of the delivery of the maintenance doses, resume delivery of progressively increasing partial maintenance doses to the vagus nerve via the pulse generator, each progressively increasing partial maintenance dose having a duty cycle less than a duty cycle of a full maintenance dose.