Epilepsy is not a curse and not a barrier to success. So far, medication was the only known modality of treatment in this part of the country. But there is the option of surgery also now, doctors at K.G. Hospital here have said.
The hospital said on Tuesday that surgery had been performed on two patients recently. They were suffering from seizures for a long time as medication did not help control epilepsy.
The first patient, a 17-year-old girl was having fits from the age of three, which had prevented her from completing her school education. She used to get five to six episodes of fits every day and she used to fall and get injured. Her detailed evaluation showed that the seizures were arising from the right side of the brain.
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed grossly destroyed right portion.
With the help of the above investigations, experts at the hospital concluded that the right brain was practically non-functional and was only throwing seizures.
She was hence subjected to right hemispherotomy, a procedure that effects disconnection of the right half of the brain from the other. The patient was relieved of seizures, Chairman of the hospital Dr. G. Bakthavathsalam and Epileptologist Rajesh Shankar Iyer said.
The second patient, a 41-year-old woman, had been having fits for the past 11 years. Her husband deserted her and their two children. She suffered multiple burns in her hands due to fits while working in the kitchen. She was found to have fits originating from the right temporal lobe.
An MRI showed right mesial temporal sclerosis (loss of neuron cells in hippocampus, a major component of the brain). “She was subjected to right anterior temporal lobectomy (removal of a lobe), along with amydalohippocampectomy (removal of two structures in the inner side of the temporal lobe in the brain) and she is doing well after surgery,” the doctors claimed.
They explained that epilepsy was a condition of the nervous system affecting around five to ten persons per 1,000 people. It can affect individuals at any age. It was mainly categorised as generalised epilepsy and partial epilepsy. Around 30 per cent of people with partial epilepsy continued to have repeated seizures despite proper medications. Repeated seizures interfered with education, employment and could result in marital disharmonies. Also, anti-fits medications were not without side-effects.
People who continued to get fits despite optimum dose of medications were referred to as suffering from medically refractory epilepsy. They should be subjected to detailed pre-surgical evaluation with Video EEG studies and MRI. This would help identify the ideal surgical candidates who were likely to become seizure-free after surgery. A good majority of them could be successfully withdrawn from medications following surgery, thereby sparing them of the side-effects of prolonged medication.
“Very few centres in the country are doing this surgery. These are in Thiruvananthapuram, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Coimbatore,” Dr. Iyer said.
