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The VNS Therapy System (VNS; Cyberonics, Inc.) was approved by the FDA in 1997 as adjunctive therapy for adults and adolescents over 12 years of age whose partial-onset seizures were refractory to antiepileptic drugs, thereby becoming the first (and, to date, only) nonpharmacologic epilepsy treatment recognized by the FDA as safe and effective. Because stimulation of the vagus nerve in the neck may have physiologic and potentially clinically relevant effects via both efferent and afferent pathways, investigators have studied the effects of acute vagus nerve stimulation on vagally mediated functions such as respiration, blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (Epilepsy Res 1999; 35:1, and Respir Physiol 2001; 127:125). In this study, the investi…