SAN ANTONIO, TX (Ivanhoe Newswire) – A rare brain surgery performed in San Antonio, stopped up to 200 seizures per day in the brain of a 15-month-old. Those seizures were caused by a malformation in the right side of the brain. And, if the surgery had not been performed, the now 3-year-old child would have never walked or talked.
When little Reagan cross was only a year old, she underwent brain surgery after six to eight months of suffering 200 seizures a day.
Mark Lee, MD, PhD, Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Christus Children’s Hospital explains, “During her workup, we discovered that she had a congenital condition called, hemimegalencephaly. That’s where one half of the brain, the hemisphere, is very abnormal.”
Worse yet, this congenital condition, called cortical dysplasia caused the right side of her brain to stop functioning at all.
“The potential to control the seizures is actually a very dramatic operation called a hemispherectomy,” says Dr. Lee.
In the old days, doctors would have removed the entire damaged half of the brain.
Dr. Lee explains, “Currently, with newer technologies, we actually go in through much smaller opening and disconnect that whole half of the brain, so it’s still there, that abnormal hemisphere, but it’s not connected to her.”
Dr. Lee says this newer surgery paves the way to a faster recovery, and there is much less blood loss. Most exciting, was what happened post-surgery.
“She immediately stopped having seizures,” he says.
Finally, with this surgery, there is less risk of the child getting water on the brain and requiring a shunt. The five-hour surgery gave Reagan and her family new life.
Anti-seizure meds were not effective in the long run, and the dramatic surgery was the recommended choice. Dr. Lee made an incision in the head like a reverse question mark and created a window in the bone, to repair the brain lobe. Reagan is now three and healthy.
Contributors to this news report include: Donna Parker, Producer; Bruce Maniscales, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
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MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TITLE: RARE BRAIN SURGERY STOPS SEIZURES IN BABY REAGAN
REPORT: MB #5401
BACKGROUND: A hemispherectomy is a highly specialized and rare surgical procedure used primarily to treat severe epilepsy that cannot be controlled by medication or other less invasive treatments. This procedure involves the removal or disconnection of one cerebral hemisphere of the brain. Although the surgery is drastic, it can be life-changing for patients suffering from intractable epilepsy, particularly in children. This treatment is usually considered when seizures originate from one hemisphere of the brain and significantly impair the patient’s quality of life. There are two types of hemispherectomies: anatomic and functional. The functional method removes and disconnects a smaller area of the brain while the anatomic method replaces the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes of a child’s brain. After hemispherectomy seizure rates range between 52 to 90 percent with very low mortality rates, making the procedure very effective.
(Sources: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/procedures/17092-hemispherectomy
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3854724/)
DIAGNOSING: Determining the necessity of a hemispherectomy involves a thorough and multifaceted diagnostic process that aims to ensure that the surgery is the most appropriate intervention for controlling severe, intractable epilepsy or other debilitating neurological conditions. The diagnostic process typically begins with gathering comprehensive details about the patient’s seizure types, frequency, duration, and response to anti-epileptic drugs. Conducting a thorough physical and neurological examination to identify any deficits, asymmetries, or signs of underlying conditions like hemiparesis or syndromic features will also take place. The evaluations involve multiple stages, including clinical assessment, advanced imaging, neuropsychological testing, and invasive monitoring, all reviewed by a multidisciplinary team. The goal is to achieve optimal seizure control, improve quality of life, and minimize risks and adverse outcomes for patients suffering from severe, intractable epilepsy or other neurological conditions.
(Source: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/procedures/17092-hemispherectomy)
NEW TECHNOLOGY: For the second time ever a team of doctors from the University of Chicago Medicine Comer and the Department of Neurosurgery used a minimally invasive Neurosurgery to disconnect the right and left sides of the brain and the left epilepsy-generating zones in a young boy with epilepsy. They successfully stopped his seizures. The surgery was an eight-hour-long laser functional hemispherectomy.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
CHRISTUS Children’s Heart Center (210) 704-8829.
For media inquiries – Gloria Madera gloria.madera@christushealth.org
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