Epilepsy Treatment - Signs, Symptoms, Treatment

You will have your pre-surgical physical examination tests which includes:

Video EEG:  This detect the abnormalities related to electrical activities of the brain, locates the seizure and track, record the brain wave pattern.

MRI or CT scan: This is an imagining technique which gives a detailed structure of the brain.

PET scan: Detects the abnormalities in the brain

SPECT scan: Produces image to show how your organs work. Here, done for brain to show how it works.

When the medicines doesn’t work for treating Epilepsy then surgery is performed, there are different types of surgery done depending upon the patient’s health, age and condition.

Different surgeries are:

Hemispherectomy: This type of epilepsy surgery removes the outer layer of half the brain. This is suitable for a very less ratio of patient, but is very successful procedure as it eliminates the area responsible for causing seizure.  

Focal resection: This is the most common surgery where only the portion of the brain where the seizure originate is removed. Commonly the temporal lobe (part of brain) this is the most effective procedure if the seizure originate from one location in the brain. 

Corpus callosotomy: This type of surgery interrupt the pathway by which seizure spreads. It does not remove the part where seizure is present, it just restricts the pathway.  

VNS (Vagus nerve stimulation): A device known as “Pacemaker” is placed in the chest to stimulate the vagus nerve. This helps in maintaining the electrical balance of the sensations generated by the brain or being received by the brain.

Epilepsy surgery like any other surgery also has a risk of clinical infection, excessive bleeding during or after the surgery. These risks are usually eliminated by using new procedural protocols and latest techniques. Some of the other risks involved in the surgery are loss of vision, speech or any other motor activity. Your doctor will always discuss these problems with you as they are individual specific and vary from person to person.