What are the most common surgical treatment options?
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Apr 11, 2017
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Dr. Phillips explains the most common surgical treatment options for epilepsy.
What are the most common surgical treatment options?
The two most common surgical treatment options for epilepsy are vagal lobe stimulator, which is like a pacemaker that's placed in the chest and it's attached to the nerve in the neck, where it will turn on and give a pulse to the nerve, which affects the brain. Over time that reduces the frequency of seizures. The next is epilepsy surgery per se, which is taking out part of the brain that's causing seizures. People that have intractable seizures, that is seizures that are not controlled with medication, are the ones that have a potential to go onto that kind of treatment. It usually is partial seizures, seizures coming from one part of the brain, that go onto need epilepsy surgery, that kind of epilepsy surgery.