PSG Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Centre (PSG-CECC) is born
With the performance of three complex epilepsy surgeries, PSG-IMSR added one more feather in its cap-a fully equipped comprehensive epilepsy care centre. It became the first teaching hospital in Tamil Nadu to perform these rare surgeries and establish a dedicated centre to manage complicated cases of epilepsy.
These surgeries were performed on three patients recently. They included a 9-year-old girl, a19-year-old boy and a 30 year old gentleman. All the three underwent a surgical procedure called hemispherotomy, wherein one half of the brain is disconnected from the rest. All the three are doing well and are seizure-free at three months follow-up.
This young girl from southern Tamil Nadu has been suffering from recurrent fits over the past 2 years. The seizures would affect the left side of her body. She had almost daily seizures making her drop out of school despite being good at studies. All medications were tried but to no avail. A detailed evaluation showed that she is suffering from a rare devastating condition causing epilepsy called Rasmussen’s encephalitis. This usually affects one half of the brain which was the right side in her case causing seizures affecting the left side of the body. She underwent a right hemispherotomy following which she is seizure free and is planning to join back school from this academic year.
Both gentlemen had severe scarring of the right side of the brain resulting in seizures impeding their learning and employment opportunities. Freedom from seizures has opened new avenues for them and their families.
Epilepsy is a condition of the nervous system affecting around five to ten persons per 1,000 people. It is more common among youngsters. Though majority responds to medicines, 30 per cent continue to have repeated seizures despite drugs. They are referred to as people with medically refractory epilepsy. Repeated seizures in this unfortunate group bring with them a plethora of problems since they interfere with education, employment and marital oppurtunities.
Our PSG comprehensive epilepsy care centre with its state of the art facilities and team work will be a boon for these patients with epilepsy. They will be subjected to detailed pre-surgical evaluation with MRI and Video EEG studies. This would identify the ideal surgical candidates who are likely to become seizure-free after surgery. Medications could be withdrawn in a good majority of people undergoing surgery sparing them of the side-effects of prolonged medication use. Those people who are not candidates of surgery also benefit by appropriate use of anti-epileptic drugs after comprehensive evaluation with our centre.