Epilepsy Surgery
Epilepsy Surgery:
Seizures occur in upto 10% of the population. Epilepsy or recurrent unprovoked seizures occur in 1%. Of the newly diagnosed epilepsy patients 30-35% will be refractory to medications either single or in combination. For these individuals epilepsy surgery may be an option.
This consists of inpatient admission for long term Video EEG monitoring in an epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) for capturing 4-6 seizures on video and EEG recording and assessing if this arising from a single area of the brain ( focal) or from initial simultaneous whole brain involvement (generalized ). If focal in onset then epilepsy resective surgery may be an option. Otherwise vagal nerve stimulation may be considered in the appropriate setting. If respective surgery is an option the chances of cure are quite high and can be as high as an 80% chance of cure in temporal lobe epilepsy and upto 50% chance of cure in extra temporal or non temporal lobe epilepsy. If you or anyone you know has refractory seizures or epilepsy then referral to an epileptologist or an epilepsy center may be life changing. For more on Epilepsy please click here..