TRANSCRANIAL STATIC MAGNETIC STIMULATION, A NOVEL APPROACH TO REFRACTORY EPILEPSY ​IN HUMANS

Transcranial Static Magnetic Stimulation (tSMS) is a noninvasive neuromodulatory technique that has demonstrated its capacity in reducing heightened cortical excitability, a hallmark of many forms of epilepsy, a neurological disorder that affects over 50 million people worldwide, and approximately one-third of patients do not respond current pharmacological treatments. We previously demonstrated in animal models, including pharmacological, traumatic and genetic models of epilepsy, that tSMS was able to dramatically reduce the number of crisis. Hence, the aim of this project was to test the efficacy of a pilot clinical program of tSMS on refractory focal epilepsy.
The study was conducted at the University Hospitals of Coruña, Santiago de Compostela and Valladolid where 3 women, 5 men; age range 23–56 years were included in the study. The sample was not homogeneous, including different kind of epilepsies. Patients received daily application of a nickel-plated NdFeB magnet (0.5 Tesla) over the epileptic focus for 30 minutes over a four-week period, guided by EEG localization. In addition, each participant had three EEG recordings: before treatment began, on the last day, and one month later.
Reported seizures were reduced in all patients, ranging from 25% to 100% in two participants (mean reduction 58%) during the treatment. The results correlated with changes observed in the EEG signal. No adverse effects of any kind were reported.Static magnetic fields are able to reduce seizures in all our patients, representing and easy to use and affordable technique to be incorporated to the current treatments to epilepsy