Brain Image ,Epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder
MUMBAI:
Twenty-seven-year-old Dilip Joshi is content. Ever since doctors of KEM
Hospital, Parel, operated on his brain, on 5 may 2011.
he has stopped having seizures that disrupted his life thrice every week. "They have cured my epilepsy,''as he said :
Epilepsy surgery is not new, with KEM Hospital itself having performed it on over 200 patients. A team of neurologists and neurosurgeons identify the area in the brain where neurons were continuously shooting messages, thereby causing convulsions, seizures, etc. But Joshi belongs to a special group of patients whose abnormal neurons were located in areas that were hitherto considered inoperable in India. "We have taken epilepsy surgery to its next level. It's like crossing a frontier,'' said neurosurgeon Dr Dattatreya Mazumdar of KEM Hospital.
Epilepsy, which affects one in 100 people, is still a taboo disease. "Its symptoms such as convulsions and seizures are considered demonic in our society. It's still viewed as a curse,'' said Dr Atul Goel, who heads KEM Hospital's neurosurgery department. The disorder has always been an ignored field as a result and it is mainly left to public hospitals to take up epilepsy surgery.
he has stopped having seizures that disrupted his life thrice every week. "They have cured my epilepsy,''as he said :
Epilepsy surgery is not new, with KEM Hospital itself having performed it on over 200 patients. A team of neurologists and neurosurgeons identify the area in the brain where neurons were continuously shooting messages, thereby causing convulsions, seizures, etc. But Joshi belongs to a special group of patients whose abnormal neurons were located in areas that were hitherto considered inoperable in India. "We have taken epilepsy surgery to its next level. It's like crossing a frontier,'' said neurosurgeon Dr Dattatreya Mazumdar of KEM Hospital.
Epilepsy, which affects one in 100 people, is still a taboo disease. "Its symptoms such as convulsions and seizures are considered demonic in our society. It's still viewed as a curse,'' said Dr Atul Goel, who heads KEM Hospital's neurosurgery department. The disorder has always been an ignored field as a result and it is mainly left to public hospitals to take up epilepsy surgery.
KEM Hospital itself
started epilepsy surgery three years back. "We started with basic
surgeries, but realized that there are still a group of patients who
couldn't be helped because the affected part of their brain was
sensitive as it was the seat of emotion, hearing,'' said neurologist Dr
Sangeeta Ravat.
In the brain, every millimetre matters. "Hence, we started the electrocorticography-guided surgery in which we place two electrodes in the brain's affected area to study how it functions or malfunctions. We have to stimulate the patient in some cases to study this reaction,'' the doctors explained.
Using this mapping, surgeons get a precise mapping of the affected part of the brain and operate accordingly. "KEM Hospital has a team of psychologists and psychiatrists who first evaluate the patient and we have state-of-the-art machines to map the brain's function,'' said Dr Goel.
Consider Joshi's case. He began suffering from epilepsy a decade back, suffering blackouts of over 10 minutes. "With medicines, the complete blackout spells stopped but I would get seizures lasting for 10 seconds or so every alternate day,'' said Joshi, who lives in the central suburbs. That is when his doctors asked him to undergo surgery at KEM Hospital. "But we had to be sure that he would benefit more than suffer from such a surgery. These patients don't have a terminal disease. We have to consider their quality of life before operating on such sensitive parts of the brain,'' said neuropsychologist Dr Urvashi Shah. Dr Ravat added that each of the 15 patients from the special group of epileptic patients was doing well. "We ask them to continue with their medicines for a year or two before stopping them completely. But each of our patients is doing well,'' she added.
In the brain, every millimetre matters. "Hence, we started the electrocorticography-guided surgery in which we place two electrodes in the brain's affected area to study how it functions or malfunctions. We have to stimulate the patient in some cases to study this reaction,'' the doctors explained.
Using this mapping, surgeons get a precise mapping of the affected part of the brain and operate accordingly. "KEM Hospital has a team of psychologists and psychiatrists who first evaluate the patient and we have state-of-the-art machines to map the brain's function,'' said Dr Goel.
Consider Joshi's case. He began suffering from epilepsy a decade back, suffering blackouts of over 10 minutes. "With medicines, the complete blackout spells stopped but I would get seizures lasting for 10 seconds or so every alternate day,'' said Joshi, who lives in the central suburbs. That is when his doctors asked him to undergo surgery at KEM Hospital. "But we had to be sure that he would benefit more than suffer from such a surgery. These patients don't have a terminal disease. We have to consider their quality of life before operating on such sensitive parts of the brain,'' said neuropsychologist Dr Urvashi Shah. Dr Ravat added that each of the 15 patients from the special group of epileptic patients was doing well. "We ask them to continue with their medicines for a year or two before stopping them completely. But each of our patients is doing well,'' she added.
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