Brain surgery for epilepsy: Risk factors, and Types

Epilepsy is a debilitating disease, which is primarily managed by medication. But if the symptoms become unmanageable by medicines then the doctor can suggest surgery based on the radiological and other pathological reports. Brain surgery for epilepsy has a good percentage of success rate.

During this surgery, the doctor removes a part of the brain where the seizure begins to form, sometimes instead of removing the part they alter it.

Brain surgery is usually indicated when two drugs fail to control seizures. Brain surgery for epilepsy is only useful when the seizure begins only at one place in the brain.

Epilepsy: When to undergo surgery?

This surgery is usually done to avoid complications of epilepsy especially in patients who do not respond to the medications as expected.

Surgery is indicated only when two anti-epileptic drugs fail to manage the symptoms. If surgery is not performed it can lead to life-threatening complications such as drowning, physical injury during a seizure, delayed growth in children, depression, severe anxiety and sometimes death too.

Types of epilepsy surgery

There are different types of surgeries performed to treat epilepsy. The doctor decides the best surgery for the patient mainly based on the site of the nerve cell that triggers a seizure and the age of the patient. The types of surgery include the following:

• Resective surgery which the most common type of epilepsy surgery where a small part of the brain that triggers the attack is removed.
• Laser interstitial thermal therapy is a minimally invasive technique guided by MRI.
• Deep brain stimulation is also an MRI guided procedure where an electrode is permanently implanted deep in the brain and generator to send electrical pulse is implanted in the chest.
• Corpus callosotomy is usually performed in children who experience abnormal brain activity that speeds from one side to the other side of the brain.
• Hemispherectomy in this procedure the gray matter of one hemisphere of the brain is removed. It is usually performed on children who experience seizures which originates from multiple sites of a single hemisphere.
• Functional Hemispherectomy is usually performed for children in which a seizure-inducing hemisphere is undercut thereby there is no loss of brain tissues.

Epilepsy Risks Factors

• Headache
• Stroke
• Mood swings
• Depression
• Visual impairment
• Difficulty in comprehension
• Forgetfulness
• Memory disorder
• Difficulty in understanding language and using language.

Epilepsy pre-operative evaluation

The doctor first evaluates the patient to find the source of abnormal brain activity through :

• ECG
• Video EEG
• MRI
• WADA test
• Brain mapping
• Functional MRI
• Some Neurological tests

After the evaluation, the doctor chooses the best type of surgery for the patient. Remove the hair of the head before surgery to avoid infection.

Epilepsy Postoperative care 

• Patients need to spend one night after the surgery in ICU and are discharged after 3-4 days from the hospital.
• For pain doctors advice medicines and ice packs.
• Avoid mental stress
• Avoid physical exertion
• The patient can resume office and school only after 3 months.

https://www.nirujahealthtech.com/10642-2/

Neurology Hospitals in India

1. INDO AMERICAN HOSPITAL, KERALA
2. B J Medical College and Sassoon Hospital, Pune
3. Institute Of Neurosciences Kolkata
4. Fortis Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, New Delhi
5. Max Super Specialty Hospital New Delhi
6. Manipal Hospitals – Jayanagar, Bengaluru
7. Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi
8. Jehangir Hospital , Sassoon Road, Pune
9. Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai
10. D Hinduja Hospital For Neurology, Mumbai
11. Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences Delhi
12. National Institute of Mental Health And Neuro Sciences