A team of microsystems engineers and neurosurgeons at the University of Freiburg in Germany are working to develop a new implantable cuff equipped with electrodes that, they say, can lower blood pressure without causing side effects. While doctors usually prescribe drugs against high blood pressure, in around 35 percent of patients pills don’t succeed in reducing blood pressure over the long term, the researchers say. In order to help those patients whose blood pressure cannot be reduced through the use of drugs, the Freiburg researchers propose implanting a newly developed cuff with 24 electrodes in the vagal nerve in the neck.
The device determines which electrode is closest to the nerve fibers that transmit the blood pressure signal. Then it uses electrostimulation to overwrite the information in these fibers with such precision that other bundles of fibers with other functions are not affected.
The researchers have named this procedure for individual analysis, selection, and stimulation "BaroLoopTM," and have tested the device on rats, succeeded in lowering their mean blood pressure by 30 percent without causing side effects such as a reduced heart rate or a drastic decrease in respiratory rate.
Now that they have determined that a cuff with electrodes is feasible in principle, they have begun to develop a completely implantable system, but do not expect to produce a licensed product for at least ten years.
