Each year made their debut at 20,000 Spain new epileptics.

– prestigious specialists in the world in the treatment of epilepsy have met in Seville to reach consensus on protocols and treatments in the surgical approach of epilepsy in the framework of the IV International Symposium on epilepsy

Seville, February 2012.- team of neurosurgery of USP Sacred Heart – IENSA, led by Dr. Trujillo Madroñal, has organized the IV International Symposium on epilepsy and epilepsy surgery under the title: epilepsy Perirrolándicas ”, under the direction of the doctors Juan Rodríguez Uranga and José Manuel Montero ElenaNeurologist and neurosurgeon respectively, Integral unit of epilepsy of USP Sacred Heart – IENSA.

The opening of the symposium was conducted by Pilar Serrano, Managing Director of USP Sagrado Corazón and Dr. Francisco Trujillo Madroñal, Chief of neurosurgery service of USP Sacred Heart – IENSA.

In the Symposium gathered some of the most prestigious specialists in the world in the treatment of epilepsy, as the Dr. Cendes of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil), Dr. Villanueva of H. Faith (Valencia), Dr. Alvarez Linera of the H. Ruber International (Madrid), of the University of Mexico City Vanegas Dr., Dr. Palmini of Porto Alegre (Brazil), among others, in addition to the members of the unit of epilepsy and epilepsy surgery USP sacred heart of Seville, the doctors Rodríguez UrangaPérez Díaz, Elena Montero and Trujillo Madroñal.

In the words of Dr. Montero, neurosurgeon of the epilepsy unit of USP Sacred Heart-IENSA and Co-Director of the Symposium, this fourth edition will address two blocks differentiated, on the one hand the study of the Perirrolándicas epilepsy, since the focus epileptógeno is situated next to the Calcarine Rolandoare very difficult surgical approach for finding nearby eloquent areas such as motor, sensory, and associative cortex, and require very precise surgery to avoid motor, sensory, cognitive, or Visual effects in the patient ”. In the second block, continues Dr. Montero, addressed the Brain Anatomy in the Epilepsy Surgery and as eloquent areas in the vicinity of the rolándico cortex to define ”.

For its part the Dr. Rodríguez Uranga, neurologist of the epilepsy unit of USP Sacred Heart-IENSA and Co-Director of the Symposium, points the importance of the realization of the vídeo-electroencefalograma (monitored study with electroencefalográfico record and video of seizure of the patient) to the location of the focus where crises are initiated, and techniques for mapping cortical, to define the eloquent areas of cortex perirrolándico, as elements of guide essential for this type of Epilepsy Surgery ”.

The causes of epilepsy are diverse, although there is the error of thinking that it is hereditary, this factor only occurs in some specific types of epilepsy. The most common causes are arteriovenous, head injuries, damage malformations at birth, brain tumors, infectious diseases such as meningitis, among others.

Integral unity of epilepsy: the importance of multidisciplinary vision of the patient

USP Sagrado Corazón has been a pioneer in surgery for epilepsy in the private sector, with a complete multidisciplinary team composed of neurologists, neuropsychlogists, neurophysiologists, Anesthetists and neurosurgeons specializing in epilepsy, which carried out an assessment of comprehensive patient, having incorporated last generation technologies such as video-EEG – still today the only private hospital in Andalusia has a specific unit of this technique – and the Intraoperatoria magnetic resonance. The latter is a useful tool for the surgeon, with the purpose of ensuring correct certain injuries epileptógenas resection, in addition to providing greater security for the patient.

Importance of Epilepsy Surgery

Epileptic patients suffer a huge constraint on the development of their daily lives, since they must take medication, not without adverse effects, of life and be monitored permanently by relatives. The continuing crisis, for many years, creating a progressive cognitive decline in many of these patients and their life expectancy cannot be lower than the rest of the population. In fact, analyzes overall mortality in patients with refractory epilepsy to medical treatment, considering that it is 5 times higher than the general population.

The importance of Epilepsy Surgery lies in the possible disappearance of the crisis and an improvement in the quality of life of the patient which, in many cases, becomes independent, something that is vital for human beings.

102 patients operated successfully

Between 25 and 30% of the epileptics are refractory to treatment doctor and they could benefit from surgery.
In terms of impact, it is estimated that something more than 3% of all epileptics again diagnosis can be considered candidates for Epilepsy Surgery, so about 30 patients per year could benefit from this type of surgery in an area like Sevilla.

Regarding the perirrolándicas epilepsy, it is difficult to have an estimate of incidence or prevalence there is no appropriate in this regard studies, but is well established that should be 5-10% of all surgeries of a unit or advanced epilepsy surgery program.

So far, the Integral unity of epilepsy of USP Sacred Heart-IENSA been involved successfully 102 cases of epilepsy, while 83 per cent free of crisis after surgery. Of total made interventions, 9 cases related to epilepsy perirrolándicas which, in the words of Dr. Rodriguez Uranga, constitute the biggest challenge, due to its complexity, of advanced surgery for epilepsy programs ”.

Epilepsy in figures

The incidence of epilepsy is estimated around 50/100000 inhabitants/year and the prevalence on 5-10 per 1000.

Extrapolating these figures to the Spanish population they would mean each year to debut some new 20,000 epileptic and that, at this time, there are between 200,000 and 400,000 epileptics.

A population like Seville and its radius of influence, of some 2 million inhabitants, would be approximately 1,000 new epileptics per year and with the existence of 10,000 to 20,000 patients from this pathology.

On USP hospital

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Madrid, USP hospital is the first hospital group private Spanish market. Currently, USP hospital has a network of 12 hospitals, 23 health centres and 4,000 doctors annually serving more than two million patients. In 2010 the company registered 331.494 clinical stays, 118.931 surgery, 11.202 births and 424.511 er.