Epilepsy is an ancient and stubborn disease, and its stubbornness may be far more than we think. When the effect of drug treatment is not satisfactory, people can't help but ask: can surgical treatment become the last hope of patients, and can surgery be done once and for all, no longer attacking?
Surgery, as an important means of epilepsy treatment, has indeed brought more hope to many patients. However, surgery is not a panacea, and even if it is successful, there is no guarantee that epilepsy will never recur. Because of the many causes of epilepsy, surgery can only solve the problem of the lesion in some patients. For other types of epilepsy, surgery may only provide relief. At this point, everyone must be full of doubts about the types of epilepsy surgery, and want to know what to do after surgery to ensure the treatment effect and reduce recurrence.
There are three main types of epilepsy surgery:
The first type is excisional surgery, which is also the most commonly used surgical method. This type of surgery is to first find the epileptogenic focus or lesion in the brain that causes seizures, and then directly remove the lesion, so as to achieve the goal of radical epilepsy.
The second type is distortion surgery. Because some lesions may be hidden deep in the brain and difficult to reach, such as in important functional areas of the brain, direct resection may affect important functions such as language, movement, and sensation, so discrete surgery is necessary in such cases. The main purpose of distortion surgery is to release the epileptic foci to cut off the transmission of abnormal signals.
Common dissection procedures include corpus callosum and multiple subleptal cross-section. The more commonly used dissection method is corpus callosum incision, which is mainly to dissect an important structure between the left and right brains called the corpus callosum, to prevent abnormal epileptic discharge, and to break off a mutual conduction from the left side to the right or from the right side to the left side.
The third type of surgery is neuromodulation surgery, which is mainly used for patients who do not respond to medical treatment or are not suitable for surgical resection. Among them, vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a common neuromodulation surgery that reduces the frequency of seizures by stimulating the vagus nerve. In addition, deep brain stimulation (DBS) is also an effective neuromodulation procedure for some patients with refractory epilepsy.
Do patients with epilepsy still need to continue to take anti-epileptic drugs after surgery?
Clinical studies tell us that even if the surgery is successful, most patients still need to continue taking medication to consolidate the effect of the treatment. This is because there may be extensive secondary epileptogenic foci in the brain, which may not be fully covered by surgery. Under the guidance of a doctor, patients need to continue to take their medications, race against time, and fight against the disease.
Therefore, I would like to say to all people with epilepsy that they should accept medication as a basic therapy with a positive attitude. Work hand in hand with your doctor, stay vigilant, and follow up regularly. Only in this way can we truly get rid of epilepsy and regain a healthy and happy life.