New Delhi, Mar 26 : Deep brain stimulation using implanted electrodes have been found to be effective in reduce seizures in epileptic patients, a noted neurologist said today.
'Epilepsy is a treatable disease, if treated properly,' Dr Praveen Gupta, Head of the Department, Neurology, Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon told UNI on World Epilepsy Day.
Once it was referred to as the 'falling disease' with the afflicted falling on the ground and going into spasms. Ancient communities often mistook the symptoms to be possession by a demon or ghost. It also remains a condition often misunderstood like being hereditary, affecting fertility and even as one leading to insanity.
Dr Gupta, however, dismissed these claims. 'It is generally not hereditory. It does not affect fertility or intellect. It also does not lead to insanity,' he said.
Recently, Artemis Health Institute had treated 33-year-old Shalini Arora's recurring epileptic fits by implanting a pacemaker. Deep brain stimulation using implanted electrodes help reduce seizures in epileptic patients, he added.
'Deep brain stimulation now hold hope for epileptic patients in the country,' Dr Gupta said.
'The results showed that patient whose brain was implanted with devices known as brain pacemakers, which send electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain, led to reduction in seizures,' he added.
'These exciting finding offers hope to patients who regularly suffer from seizures and have been unable to find relief through other forms of treatment,' Dr Gupta said.
In this highly specialised procedure called Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), a wire as thin as a strand of hair, is implanted with precision in the specific area of the brain called Anterior Thalamus, he explained.
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Deep brain stimulation effective in Epilepsy treatment