Treatment of epilepsy by surgery

For the first time, Ho Chi Minh City applied surgery to treat epilepsy. Surgery is used for cases of brain damage that causes seizures (such as brain tumors) or when patients treat ineffective drugs (called therapy-resistant epilepsy) and often patients with epileptic seizures the set.

Epilepsy can be treated with surgery, thanks to coordination with the brain electroencephalitis diagnostic device.(Photo: H.Cat)

Đ. GAT baby (3 years old, district 10 - HCM City) has a goitre in the face from birth and has seizures continuously since 2 years old. The baby was diagnosed with Sturge Weber disease and treated with many anti-epileptic drugs but not cured. This is a rare disease in children, having a tumor in the face and brain, children with continuous complex seizures are difficult to control with drugs.

Meanwhile, baby NMC (11 years old, District 3 - Ho Chi Minh City) often falls continuously. Many times to visit, the baby is diagnosed by hypoglycemia, hypocalcemia, neurological disorders and the last time to see the clinic of the Pediatric Neurology at Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital was diagnosed as Lennox Gastaut syndrome.

According to Dr. Thanh Thuy, specializing in pediatric epilepsy, at Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, this is also a rare syndrome with very diverse seizures, especially the decrease in muscle tone, causing patients to fall apart. customary This syndrome is also very difficult to treat, often have to coordinate many epilepsy drugs that have no high therapeutic effect, leaving behind severe sequelae of intelligence for children.

At the end of 2008, a group of neurosurgeons - Vietnamese - French neurosurgery including BV Rothschild, BV Nguyen Tri Phuong, Hospital of 115 people conducted consultation and surgery for 2 children out of nearly 200 cases. come to decide to have surgery.

Treatment of epilepsy by surgery

Baby AT is applied hemispherotomie and baby MC is treated with a technique to cut a part of the bottle (callosotomie) which is a structure that is responsible for transmitting signal information between two hemispheres. After 2 weeks of surgery, the clinical situation of the two children improved clearly, when the AT epileptic epilepsy ended completely, the NMC baby had the density of spasms gradually and severely.

According to BS. Nguyen Van Tuan (Neurosurgery Department - People's Hospital 115), these are the two new methods that are first applied in our country for epilepsy surgery.

The hemispherical technique has been improved to cut neurotransmitters around the thalamus. Marketing hills play a role in conveying all sensations (except olfactory bulb) to the cerebral cortex, but it also has a significant effect on motor function (through pathways from the basal ganglia and cerebellum) and receiving function. awake. The technique of cutting a bottle body is also to cut off the electrical impulses of the epilepsy drive to the sides of the hemisphere thanks to the help of microsurgery glasses, bipolar burners, and ultrasonic vacuums.

Epilepsy surgery has developed for more than 20 years in European and American countries. This method is becoming more effective when coordinating well with pediatric epilepsy, with indispensable subclinical means is a brain electrical video (video EEG) to accurately record brain electrical activities at the same time with Seizures occur in patients for 24 hours.

Epilepsy surgery is set for both children and adults. Surgery is used for cases of brain damage that causes seizures (such as brain tumors) or when patients treat ineffective drugs (called therapy-resistant epilepsy) and often patients with epileptic seizures the set.

Nearly 20-25% of epilepsy patients have such resistance issues and in some cases epilepsy surgery is required. For example, in Malaysia, with a population of nearly 30 million people, the annual rate of surgery is nearly 1,000. Therefore in Vietnam, this number is not small.

Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital with the help of French doctors from Paris and Lyon came to work every year, with the Department of Neurosurgery, Department of Neurology Department of Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Psychiatrists. Children who have been trained overseas will apply seizure surgery techniques in the near future.