Epilepsy

Epilepsy, one of the most common chronic neurological diseases in the world, is characterized by seizures of different kinds. These seizures are transient signs of abnormal or excessive neuronal activity in the brain.

It is very common for people to have had a random seizure with epilepsy symptoms, but a single seizure does not mean they have epilepsy. However, once a person has suffered from another seizure, the chances of suffering an additional seizure substantially ascends. It takes at least two seizures to be officially diagnosed with epilepsy.

The development of epilepsy can be diagnosed at any age, but it usually occurs during childhood or in patients above the age of 65.

Epilepsy Video

Epilepsy Symptoms

As epilepsy is caused by irregular brain activity, epilepsy seizures can affect any bodily functions that are coordinated by the brain. An epilepsy seizure can lead to:

• Temporary confusion
• Loss of consciousness
• Inattentive staring
• Involuntary movements of different body parts (hands, legs, head)

Neurologists divide epilepsy seizures into two categories: Partial and general seizures (as to is the seizure affecting only part or the whole brain) and these also divide into sub categories. The two types of partial seizures:
Simple Partial Seizure – Patients retain consciousness as it may lead to an emotional change or affect ones smell, taste or sound of familiar subjects.

Complex Partial Seizure – Can cause unconsciousness in addition to staring and pointless gestures such as: rubbing hands, swallowing motions and different incoherent sounds.

Common types of general seizures:
Petit Mal – A seizure that is characterized by staring into space, jerking or twitching movements of the eye muscles and movement without any purpose.

Atonic Seizure – Brief seizures that include the loss of muscle control.

Tonic–Clonic (Grand Mal) – The strongest type of seizure that includes loss of consciousness, jerking and convulsing and even the loss of control over bodily functions.

Epilepsy Treatments

The first option of treatment for epilepsy will be different types of medication that are prescribed to contain the seizures, also known as Anticonvulsant medications. This kind of medication can be taken as a lifelong medication or sometimes patients may stop taking them as they stop experiencing seizures after a certain age.

Epilepsy patients will be recommended for surgery when they keep having seizures although taking anticonvulsants or the areas in the brain that are affected control essential body functions. There are a few common types of surgery:

Vagus Nerve Stimulation – A surgery that implants a stimulator that sends electric impulses to the left vagus nerveThe Vagus nerve is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves that emerge directly from the brain, in contrast to spinal nerves which emerge from segments of the spinal cord (Source: Wikipedia). in the neck. This is supposed to prevent seizures by sending regular, mild pulses of electrical energy to the brain via the vagus nerve.

Hemispherectomy – A surgical procedure in which one cerebral hemisphereA cerebral hemisphere is one of the two regions of the eutherian brain that are delineated by the median plane, (medial longitudinal fissure) (Source: Wikipedia). (half of the brain) is removed or disabled. This is normally only done in children whose growing brains can compensate for the part removed and only in extreme cases where less invasive procedures haven't helped the patient.

Temporal Lobectomy - A surgical procedure in which a portion of the person's temporal lobeA part of the brain that takes part in the auditory perception, processing of semantics in both speech and vision and plays a key role in the formation of long-term memory (Source: Wikipedia). in their brain is removed. This is the most common and successful type of epilepsy surgery.

Epilepsy Surgery Abroad

If you have been diagnosed with the need for epilepsy surgery, you want the best neurosurgeons operating on you. TicketMed is affiliated with the top neurology clinics around the globe and will be happy to assist you in the process of enquiring information about the procedure as well as scheduling surgery abroad. Contact us or ask for a quote.