Could surgery be the cure to seizures?

It is back to school now for 14-year old Vijay Hanumanthappa Patil from Jamkhandi in Bagalkot district, who had dropped out of school as he was suffering from medically uncontrolled epilepsy (fits) from his birth.

After doctors from the Narayana Institute of Neurosciences at Narayana Hrudayalaya operated upon him last week, the boy has recovered and will soon be able to go to school.

Nagesh (31) from Whitefield in Bangalore, who was operated upon for the same problem last month, is back to work. Both these patients were treated free of cost at the hospital.

The Narayana Institute of Neurosciences at Narayana Hrudayalaya recently established a modern epilepsy centre with donations from the Rotary Club of Bangalore and Dr. Syed Ahmed Health Trust.

Dr. Thimmappa Hegde and Dr. Rajesh B. Iyer from the Institute, who performed the operations, told presspersons here on Monday that these two patients complained of frequent intractable seizures.

Diagnosis

Asserting that surgery could cure intractable seizures in about 60 per cent of the patients, Dr. Hegde said successful surgery depended on the identification and removal of the epileptogenic zone (the abnormal region of the brain), which was responsible for the seizure.

"This requires a pre-surgical evaluation involving a video electro encephalogram (EEG) monitoring to record the actual seizures, MRI scan of the brain with special studies on the region of interest and neuropsychological analysis.

"Of the 50 persons we evaluated since December, these two had been identified for surgery," he said.

Pointing out that there were no risk factors involved in the operation, Dr. Rajesh said if the surgery was not performed properly, there could be problems relating to speech and vision.