Types of Epilepsy Surgery
30-40% of the population with Epilepsy are drug resistant, meaning that medication cannot fully control their seizures.
The goal of epilepsy surgery is to pinpoint the region of the brain where the seizures originate, and either remove or alter it.
Not everyone whose seizures cannot be fully controlled by medication qualify for surgery, but those that do can experience a significant reduction in seizures and better quality of life.
resective surgery
Resection surgery involves removing the area of the brain in which the seizures originate.
This type of surgery is reserved for people who have seizures in non-critical areas of the brain.
laser interstitial thermal therapy (litt)
Sometimes called Laser Ablation Surgery, this procedure is less invasive than resective surgery.
Using an MRI as a guide, a small portion of brain tissue is destroyed by a laser.
anatomical or functional hemispherectomy and hemispherotomy
These types of surgery are almost exclusively performed in children with seizures originating from a large area on one side of the brain (hemisphere). The process involves separating the area of seizure onset from the rest of the brain.
corpus callosotomy
Usually reserved for people with severe generalized epilepsy, (meaning seizures that involve both sides of the brain) who are subject to debilitating drop attacks (atonic seizures) and falls. The procedure involves splitting the main connection pathway between the two cerebral hemispheres (sides of the brain).
steriotactic radiosurgery
Considered minimally invasive because the surgeon does not have to open the skull for the procedure, stereotactic radiosurgery uses 3-D imaging to target high doses of radiation to the seizure focus with minimal impact on the surrounding healthy tissue.
There are 3 devices used in Neurostimulation; the vagus nerve stimulator (VNS), responsive neurostimulator (RNS), and deep brain stimulator (DBS).
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