Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Vagus Nerve Stimulation Treatment for Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury

Vagus Nerve Stimulation is a neuromodulation treatment that enhances the brain’s own capacity to repair itself. Verita Neuro offers Vagus Nerve Stimulation to stroke or brain injury survivors whose progress has slowed down with conventional treatments. Delivered together with Stem Cell treatment and an intensive rehabilitation program, it is designed to help patients recover the movement, speech, and other body functions that have been impaired after a stroke.

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What is Vagus Nerve Stimulation?

The vagus nerve is the longest of the cranial nerves. It leaves the brainstem and travels down through the neck and chest into the abdomen, connecting the brain with major organs like heart, lungs, and digestive organs. It carries information in both directions, constantly relaying messages from the body back up to the brain, which is exactly what makes it a useful pathway for influencing brain activity from outside.

Vagus Nerve Stimulation involves a surgeon placing a small pulse generator under the skin of the chest, just below the collarbone, and connecting it to electrodes around the vagus nerve on the left side of the neck. Once switched on, it sends gentle, regular pulses up the nerve and into the brain, which helps people regain use of the affected hand or arm. Vagus Nerve Stimulation makes the tissue around the injury more adaptable, increasing the benefit of each rehabilitation exercise, calming inflammation, and prompting growth factors that help nerve cells form new connections. At Verita Neuro, Vagus Nerve Stimulation treatment is combined with Stem Cell Treatment and extensive rehabilitation to maximize outcomes.

Whom Can Vagus Nerve Stimulation Help?

Vagus Nerve Stimulation is suited to survivors of ischemic and haemorrhagic stroke or people living with traumatic brain injuries. It tends to help most where a stroke has left a lasting mark, such as weakness or paralysis on one side of the body, trouble speaking or swallowing, or difficulty with memory and thinking. Because the procedure is minimally invasive, it can be offered to a far broader group of patients than more aggressive forms of brain stimulation.

The time window between the stroke or brain injury and the beginning of Vagus Nerve Stimulation treatment matters too. Vagus Nerve Stimulation is usually considered once a patient is medically stable, which is generally somewhere between two and four months after the stroke. Before recommending it, our medical team assesses each person individually, evaluates medical history, brain imaging, and current level of function, to decide whether the patient is eligible for this treatment.

Vagus Nerve Stimulation Expected Results

The range of improvements patients have reported after undergoing Vagus Nerve Stimulation alongside rehabilitation:

  • Improved motor function and voluntary movement
  • Better speech and swallowing
  • Reduced spasticity
  • Sharper cognition and memory
  • Less neuropathic pain
  • Improved bladder and bowel control
  • Stronger overall recovery


Changes tend to become noticeable around four to six weeks after Vagus Nerve Stimulation treatment begins and many patients keep improving for months, sometimes years. The people who gain the most are those who commit to rehabilitation alongside the treatment.

"For too long, stroke survivors have been told that recovery has a ceiling, that whatever function remains after the first months is all they will ever have. Vagus Nerve Stimulation challenges that assumption entirely. By pairing targeted nerve activation with rehabilitation, we are seeing patients regain movement, speech and cognitive function that was considered lost. This is not experimental hope - it is a clinically validated pathway, and we are proud to offer it here at Verita Neuro" —
Dr. Nasir Majeed
Medical Director, Verita Neuro

The Treatment Journey

  • Consultation and assessment

    Every journey begins with a free video consultation. Our medical team goes through your stroke or brain injury history, scans, and current abilities with you, talks through your goals, and gives you an honest view of whether Vagus Nerve Stimulation is likely to help and what it could realistically achieve.

  • Implant surgery

    If Vagus Nerve Stimulation is right for you, the device is implanted near the start of your program. Our neurosurgical team positions the pulse generator in the chest and attaches the electrodes to the vagus nerve in the neck, having explained every risk to you in advance so you can decide with full information.

  • Activation and programming

    After a short recovery, the device is switched on and fine-tuned. The settings are raised gradually over roughly three months, step by step, until the Vagus Nerve Stimulation is tailored to how your body and brain respond.

  • Rehabilitation

    Vagus Nerve Stimulation works best together with rehabilitation. Across a 30-day program at one of our facilities, you follow a daily schedule of physical and occupational therapy, speech therapy where needed, combined with Stem Cell treatment.

  • Ongoing support

    Leaving the clinic is not the end of your care. We stay involved with further programming, follow-up, and guidance as your recovery continues at home.

What is a realistic outlook after Vagus Nerve Stimulation treatment?

The goal of Vagus Nerve Stimulation is to give the brain a better chance to repair and re-organise itself, so that the work done in rehabilitation goes further than it otherwise might. How much a patient recovers depends on the type and severity of their stroke or brain injury, their general health, and how fully they commit to the Physical and Occupational therapy as well as Speech therapy that runs alongside the Vagus Nerve Stimulation treatment. Some people regain a great deal of function, for others the gains are more modest but still meaningful in daily life. 

Vagus Nerve Stimulation is considered a safer, less invasive option than Brain Stimulation applied directly to the brain, and serious complications are uncommon. As with any surgery there are risks and these are explained to any patient in full beforehand. Side effects include some hoarseness or coughing while the device is stimulating, but are usually mild, temporary, and fade with time. Our medical team will always be honest with you about what Vagus Nerve Stimulation can and cannot achieve, so you can make a decision that is right for you.

Take the First Step

Wondering whether Vagus Nerve Stimulation could help you or someone you love? Book a free consultation and our team will review your case and tell you if this treatment is right for you.

Schedule a call to explore how Vagus Nerve Stimulation may help you