14 DAY TRIAL // Implants have always been somewhat controversial, especially when looked upon by those who feel that all foreign objects are mere contaminants. That hasn't stopped scientists from making them though.
A team of researchers from the University of Freiburg in Germany have come up with an implant that can control blood pressure.
Or, rather, they have found a way to reduce blood pressure by stimulating a certain nerve in the neck and prompting an otherwise (consciously) uncontrollable bodily response.
At present, hypertensions can be lowered through the use of drugs, but it's always a bad sign that you need to use medication at all.
Besides, drugs have side effects like fatigue and light-headedness. Not for everyone, and not all the time, but they can happen.
It also bears noting that 30 percent or so of people with high blood pressure can't be treated with drugs alone.
The German team led by Dennis Plachta, a microsystems engineer at the University of Freiburg, took advantage of the fact that a technique for implanting devices in humans already exists (vagal-nerve stimulation is used to treat epilepsy).
The new device consists of a pair of electrodes wrapped around the same vagal nerve in the left side of the neck, and needs only a small incision to be inserted.
A capsule implanted under the chest muscle, through an incision in the left armpit, would contain the pulse generator. All this accomplished in an hour and a half at most.
The part of the implant wrapping around the vagal nerve is only 20 mm long. Tests have already been carried out on five adult rats, and eventually a stimulation pattern was found that cuts blood pressure by 40%. On humans, a different pattern may be needed, but the overall concept should still apply.
All things considered, something like this would definitely be preferable to pacemakers and the devices used to control Parkinson's disease. Eventually, bladder dysfunction and rheumatoid arthritis could be handled in a similar manner.
Of course, “eventually,” humankind may have surpassed all diseases, becoming impervious to such slow-acting harm. The high-tech treatments will probably come first though.
“An implantable device would allow reducing the blood pressure in these patients, either alone or in combination with the already applied medication,” says Dennis Plachta, a microsystems engineer at the University of Freiburg in Germany. “It offers a second chance not available yet, and it can run in a tandem solution to a pharmaceutical treatment.”