Surgery
Sometimes medication doesn’t work for a child or the side effects are too difficult. In those cases, families may want to consider surgery.
The most common surgery for epilepsy removes a small part of the brain where the seizures begin. Another type of surgery blocks nerve pathways in the brain to stop the spread of seizures.
Not all epilepsy can be treated with surgery. It is only recommended after medication has been tried and to treat seizures that
- Always start in one part of the brain
- Occur in a part of the brain that can be removed without hurting important things like speech, memory or eyesight
Surgery for epilepsy is a serious, complicated operation. It is usually only performed in medical centers with a lot of experience in treating epilepsy. Before surgery, children will usually have to go through a number of tests to find exactly where in the brain the seizures occur. Parents and older children should talk to their doctors about what to expect, the possible risks and the recuperation or recovery time needed.
After surgery, patients must usually stay in the intensive care unit for two to four days, and then spend a few more days in the hospital. They then need to rest for about three weeks at home before resuming regular activities.
New advances are continually being made in epilepsy surgery. Dawn Cerven wrote about the extensive research and work it took to find the right surgery to help her son and how she hopes the procedure will become available to more children with his kind of epilepsy. Read her EpilepsyUSA story.
