The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received several reports of severe injuries caused by the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with implanted neurologic stimulators. The patients had electrodes that had been implanted for deep brain stimulation or vagus nerve stimulation. (Deep brain stimulation is used for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, or dystonia, and vagus nerve stimulation is used for the treatment of seizures.) The MRI-related injuries included coma and permanent damage of the nervous system and were likely caused by the MRI heating the electrodes at the end of the leadwires, resulting in damage to tissue in that area.
 
The FDA urges all patients who have implanted neurologic stimulators (whether deep brain or vagus nerve stimulator, or even peripheral, spinal cord, or neuromuscular stimulators) to check with their doctor before having an MRI scan. If you have a stimulator, do not assume that the doctor who orders an MRI or the technician who will perform the scan knows or remembers that you have a stimulator. This warning also applies if you had a stimulator in the past and it has been removed but the electrodes are still in place.
 
You can review the report from the FDA by clicking on this link.