Albany
People with epilepsy whose seizures cannot be controlled with medication have a new treatment option available at Albany Medical Center.
Doctors there have surgically implanted a device on two patients that is intended to short-circuit a seizure by detecting brain-wave activity that signals one is about to occur, then sending electrical stimulation to the site to prevent it.
The technique, called responsive neurostimulation or RNS, may at last bring a remedy for repeated seizures to the 40 percent of epilepsy patients who do not get sufficient relief with drugs, said Albany Med neurologist Dr. Anthony Ritaccio.
Other surgical options are also available, but not suitable for every patient, said Albany Med neurosurgeon Dr. Matthew Adamo. The source of seizures in the brain may easily be removed when it's scar tissue, for instance. But sometimes it doesn't eliminate the seizures. Other times, the source of the seizures is an area of the brain that a person cannot live without.
Repeated seizures can be an enormous obstacle to normal living, and people who deal with them are generally receptive to new technologies to address them, said Meghan Carnowski, health educator at the Epilepsy Foundation of Northeastern New York.
"This is a relatively new device that's very exciting for many people," she said.
The foundation estimates there are 45,000 people dealing with epilepsy in the 22 counties it serves.
RNS is a technique that involves a commitment of perhaps six months to a year on both the patient's and doctor's part before the desired results may be seen, Ritaccio said.
It involves implanting a device under the skull that picks up brain waves much as a stethoscope picks up a heartbeat. Before the device is implanted, doctors use a technique called brain mapping to determine the part of the brain that is the source of a patient's seizures. Electrodes are attached to the source, and connected to the device.
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New treatment for epilepsy