The Epilepsy Unit of Hospital Clínic de Barcelona has performed the first implant in Spain a system of deep brain stimulation for patients with refractory epilepsy, as reported by the Centre in a statement.
Refractory epilepsy is one in which seizures persist despite appropriate medical treatment with several drugs, which in Spain have 30% of the 400,000 patients with epilepsy.
A variable percentage of patients – about 15% – will be candidates for resective surgery, and the rest should be used other procedures such as deep brain stimulation.
Unit Epilepsy Clinic, coordinated by Mar Carreño, is the only accredited Catalonia and Spain by the Ministry of Health for the surgical treatment of this type of epilepsy, the neurosurgeon who performed intervention of Parkinson’s Epilepsy Program and the Hospital Clinic Jordi Rumi on 21 July.
Specifically, this therapy – Medtroic provided by the company – has been used for over 20 years for other treatments in neurological diseases, and should be implemented in the brain’s thalamus.
To make the implant is used that emits electrical impulses neurosimulador controlled and directed to an area of ??the brain: the anterior nucleus of the thalamus, an area that has strong connections with other parts of the brain involved in the generation and propagation of seizures.
The new treatment is indicated for reducing the frequency of seizures in adults with refractory epilepsy and partial seizures with or without secondary generalization.
A recent study showed results of this therapy “promising” because after two years of stimulation, the crisis fell by an average of 56%, including the most serious.
With the decline in seizures, the patient experiences a significant improvement in their quality of life and regain some of their autonomy for activities of daily living.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), epilepsy affects approximately 50 million people worldwide and almost a third do not respond well to antiepileptic drugs.
