Pittsburgh Epilepsy and Movement Disorders Surgery

November is National Epilepsy Awareness month. In support of our patients bravely battling epilepsy, we’re going purple! Also each day this week, we’ll be sharing some information about surgeries that are available to treat epilepsy. Today we’d like to highlight the goal of epilepsy surgery: surgical resection of the brain tissue responsible for causing seizures. Prior to surgery, a patient will undergo extensive testing to locate the area in the brain where seizures are comi...ng from. This includes non-invasive testing such as EEG, MRI, neuropsych testing, PET, MEG, and SPECT, and some patients may need to undergo SEEG as discussed in a previous post. Once this area is identified, we hope to offer a surgery to remove this abnormal brain tissue. This offers the patient the best chance for seizure freedom, which is the primary goal of epilepsy surgery. The most common area in the brain for seizures to come from is the temporal lobe, and surgery in the temporal lobe has the highest success rate, approaching 80% seizure freedom for some patients. We can also safely perform surgery in the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes, but the rates of seizure freedom vary among patients. In general, epilepsy surgery is safe, and although not without risk completely, it is typically safer than a lifetime of uncontrolled seizures. Generally, surgical outcomes are better when surgery is performed earlier as opposed to being a last resort after a lifetime of seizures. Patients who have surgery report a better quality of life than those who did not and a greater proportion of patients who have surgery are able to return to work or school. The two main goals of epilepsy surgery are seizure reduction and improvement in quality of life, but if a patient’s seizures come under better control, there may be an opportunity to decrease the dose or number of seizure medications. Few patients are able to stop seizure medication completely, but medication reduction may be achievable. Recovery from surgery depends on the type of surgery performed, but a typical hospital stay is 2-4 days. No bed rest is required after any surgery, and usual activities can be resumed quickly with some modifications initially. The average recovery time for this surgery is about 6 weeks. If you would like our patient educational pamphlet regarding this surgery, please email or comment below. #NEAM2020 #EpilepsyAwareness #Epilepsy #BrainSurgery #Neurosurgery #epilepsywarrior

Today we’re doing #DeepBrainStimulation for a patient with #parkinsons. He has had #parkinsonsdisease for 7 years. His most bothersome symptoms are a tremor that partially but not completely improves with medication and dyskinesia. He experiences many hours of OFF time per day where his tremor is worse and his movements are slow. He was awake during a short portion of the surgery so we could map the best spot in his brain for the #DBS electrode and so that we could examine him for improvement in his tremor. We noticed an immediate improvement in his tremor in the OR, and we expect to see improvement in dyskinesia and an increase in ON time over the next few months as we adjust his stimulation settings.

Join us Thursday at 6:00 for a free webinar. The PA’s from our epilepsy center will be discussing diagnostic testing for epilepsy. There will be plenty of time for Q&A after!