Newswise WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Sept. 13, 2013 Melanie Vandyke cant wait to get her drivers license.
I just want to get back out in the world, she said.
For nearly 15 years, Vandykes world was severely restricted by epileptic seizures during which she couldnt control her speech or actions and didnt know what she was doing or saying, and afterwards couldnt remember what had happened.
These unpredictable episodes prevented her from driving, pursuing a career, having a social life, living independently and doing countless other things that most people take for granted.
But since undergoing a cutting-edge, minimally invasive surgical procedure called MRI-guided laser ablation at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Vandyke is poised to reclaim her life.
The surgery, I do believe, has turned my life around, said the resident of Buchanan County in southwestern Virginia.
In the operation, the source of Vandykes seizures a lesion on her right medial temporal lobe was destroyed with heat generated by light from a thin laser-tipped probe inserted into her brain through a tiny hole in her skull while the surgeon viewed real-time MRI images of the process.
Wake Forest Baptist is one of only 25 medical centers nationwide, and the only one between Philadelphia and Atlanta, to perform this type of laser surgery for epilepsy with a technology called Visualase.
Introduced in 2007 and initially used to destroy tumors, the Visualase system was first employed as a treatment for epilepsy in 2010. Wake Forest Baptist performed its first epilepsy-related laser procedure in June of last year and has done 11 more since then on people between the ages of 10 and 60. The results to date have been very favorable: Most of the patients have been seizure-free since having the surgery while a few have experienced only isolated episodes.
Our initial indications are that this is a really effective therapy, said Wake Forest Baptist neurosurgeon Adrian Laxton, M.D., who performed the operation on Vandyke. Its extremely precise, with incredibly quick and powerful delivery, so it makes sense that were getting the results we want.
Read more here:
Innovative Surgery Proving Effective with Epilepsy Patients