Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a chronic medical condition marked by recurrent epileptic seizures. An epileptic seizure is an event of an altered brain function caused by abnormal, or excessive, electrical discharges from brain cells.
Reasons of Epilepsy
There are more than 50 reasons. This disease is increasing day by day, and more than ten crore people are suffering from this disease. In India, many people are suffering from this. Epilepsy attack occurs minimum for 20, and on an average, it remains for 1-2 min.
Some Possible causes of Epilepsy includes:
traumatic brain injury- scarring on the brain after a brain injury (post-traumatic epilepsy)
- serious illness or very high fever
- stroke, which is a leading cause of epilepsy in people over age 35
- other vascular diseases
- lack of oxygen to the brain
- brain tumor or cyst
- dementia or Alzheimer’s disease
- maternal drug use, prenatal injury, brain malformation, or lack of oxygen at birth
- infectious diseases such as AIDS and meningitis
- genetic or developmental disorders or neurological diseases
Epilepsy can develop at any age. Diagnosis usually occurs in early childhood or after age 60.
Symptoms of Epilepsy
The main symptom of epilepsy is repeated seizures. These are sudden bursts of electrical activity in the brain that temporarily affect how it works.
Seizures can affect people in different ways, depending on which part of the brain is involved.
- stiffening of the body
- shaking
- loss of bladder or bowel control
- biting of the tongue
- loss of consciousness
How is epilepsy diagnosed?
To diagnose your condition, your doctor will review your symptoms and medical history. Your doctor may order several tests to diagnose epilepsy and determine the cause of seizures. Your evaluation may include:
- A neurological exam. Your doctor may test your behavior, motor abilities, mental function and other areas to diagnose your condition and determine the type of epilepsy you may have.
- Blood tests. Your doctor may take a blood sample to check for signs of infections, genetic conditions or other conditions that may be associated with seizures.
Doctor may also suggest tests to detect brain abnormalities, such as EEG, CT SCAN, MRI, PET, SPECT, NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TEST.
Epilepsy Treatment
Epileptic seizures could be as a consequence of temporal lobe epilepsy (about 80%) or due to various brain conditions such as gliosis, low-grade tumors and vascular malformations in the brain. Overall 70 % of the patients respond to medications but for rest, 30% patient’s surgery is the solution.
Epilepsy surgery is a surgical procedure performed in the brain to control seizures due to above-mentioned conditions and improve the overall quality of life. It is usually considered when medications fail to control seizures.
Temporal lobe epilepsy is the commonest form of epilepsy for which love resection procedure is done.
The brain tissues in the lobe area are cut away to remove the seizure focus. Detailed brain mapping is performed prior to the surgery by our neurologist to ensure that only abnormal tissue is removed. In OT sophisticated technologies such as stereotactic implantation of electrodes is done to remove as little as tissue possible, as safely as possible, to eliminate seizures.
About Dr. Vardan’s Treatment
- The large number of patients we treat gives us unparalleled expertise in assessing and treating the full spectrum of epilepsy and seizure disorders.