TUPELO, Miss.—The neurosurgery team at North Mississippi Medical Center is offering new hope for stroke survivors with upper limb impairment who have plateaued with traditional therapy.

Neurosurgeons Dr. Louis Rosa and Dr. Carl Bevering recently implanted Mississippi’s first Vivistim® paired vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) device to improve the brain’s ability to relearn motor tasks.

Statistics show that up to 60% of survivors suffer from persistent upper limb impairment at six months following a stroke. The team explained that Vivistim works by activating the brain’s attention system and forming new neural connections that bypass the damaged areas of the brain.

When paired with specialized physical or occupational therapy and at-home exercises, this innovative technology has been clinically proven to improve hand and arm function two to three times more than therapy alone.

For more information, call the NMMC neuroscience nurse navigator at (662) 377-7504.