Naples Comprehensive Health became the first health care facility in the region to successfully perform a procedure using the Vivistim System aimed at restoring mobility in those suffering moderate to severe upper extremity motor deficits caused by ischemic stroke. Ischemic stroke is a debilitating condition that can result in long-term motor deficits, severely impacting patients’ quality of life.

Before the Vivistim System, traditional treatment options had been few, leaving many patients with limited mobility and independence. The Vivistim System promotes neuroplasticity and offers new hope to stroke survivors while representing a paradigm shift in stroke rehabilitation. It is intended to be used, along with poststroke rehabilitation therapy, in patients who have had ischemic stroke to electrically stimulate the vagus nerve—a nerve that runs from the brain down to the abdomen. The goal is to reduce deficiencies in upper limb and extremity motor function and to improve patients’ ability to move their arms and hands.

With the Vivistim System, an implantable pulse generator—which generates a mild electrical pulse—is implanted just under the skin in the chest of the patient. Attached to the IPG is a lead wire that is implanted under the skin and leads up to electrodes that are placed near the vagus nerve on the left side of the neck