COLUMBIA, Mo., Dec, 15, 2015 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Nuviant Medical (“Nuviant” or “the Company”) announced today that it was awarded a National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant to apply its neuromodulation system to superior laryngeal nerve (“SLN”) stimulation for the treatment of neurogenic dysphagia. This therapy involves stimulation that selectively facilitates swallowing in patients with dysphagia, thus restoring quality of life and mitigating both morbidity and mortality.
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Dysphagia refers either to difficulty with the initial phases of a swallow or to the sensation that foods or liquids are obstructed in passage from the mouth to the stomach. As many as 15 million Americans (approximately 60-80% of all patients with neurodegenerative diseases) suffer from dysphagia, with nearly 600,000 Americans newly diagnosed each year. This condition is primarily caused by neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, stroke, dementia, muscular dystrophy, and cerebral palsy. Nuviant is currently developing its SynapseTM deep brain stimulation (DBS) system for the treatment of neurological diseases and expects to integrate the SLN therapy into its product line.
Dysphagia is highly correlated with malnutrition and aspiration pneumonia, which results in poor quality of life and contributes considerably to increased morbidity and mortality. Current treatments for this debilitating and life-threatening condition are limited to diet modifications (e.g., thickened liquids), behavioral adaptations (e.g., tucking the chin when swallowing), and other palliative interventions (e.g., feeding tubes) as efforts to extend survival. Despite being a major source of morbidity and mortality, there are few treatment options.
“I am thrilled to collaborate with Nuviant to further develop their technology and potentially provide a restorative treatment option for these patients,” said co-investigator Teresa Lever, Ph.D., assistant professor of otolaryngology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, who will be leading the study with Principal Investigator Dr. Navid Khodaparast of Nuviant. Dr. Lever continued, “Through the past few decades, there has been slow advancement in available therapies for this clinically significant problem. We are pushing to deliver the implantable neuromodulation solution that could enhance the lives of these high-risk patients.”
“If this research garners successful results, we are confident that integrating this therapy with our existing DBS platform will provide a welcomed and much needed solution for patients with neurological diseases and neurogenic dysphagia,” said Nuviant CEO Will Rosellini. “As our field progresses and more treatment options are found with neurostimulation, multi-application and possibly single-implant systems will be the obvious choice for co-morbidity management.”
About Nuviant Medical, Inc. - Nuviant Medical is a medical device company that is developing implantable neurostimulation systems for the relief of various chronic diseases and disorders. The Synapse system is the only system that can stimulate across 16 independent channels while simultaneously recording neural signals. Synapse previously received CE approval for adjunctive alleviation therapy of movement disorder symptoms and is being further developed for commercialization in Europe and the US. For more information on Nuviant Medical, please visit our website at www.nuviantmedical.com
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Media Contact:Beth Rosellini, Nuviant Medical, Inc., 1-888-907-6876, beth@nuviantmedical.com
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SOURCE Nuviant Medical, Inc
