Blog #155: Robot-assisted brain surgery at Canada’s London Health Sciences Centre provides hope for people living with epilepsy.
Since2011, my monthly epilepsy blog followers (LanceFogan.com) have reviewed severalblogs touching on the efficacy of epilepsy surgery on improving epilepsy—oftencures result. Specialized epilepsy neurosurgical centers evaluate eachcandidate and if the seizure focus can be localized with various testprocedures, and if it is determined that surgery on that focus would be safewithout debilitating side-effects, e.g., speech problems, motor, sensory orvisual complicating deficits, highly successful outcomes are routine.
Reviewmy most recent epilepsy blogs on epilepsy surgery: blog #145 Aug. 25, ’22; blog#121, Aug 25, ’20, and blog #89, Dec 26, ’17.
Bryan Bicknell, the CTV News Reporter, on June 23,2023, reported that a neurosurgeon at the London HealthSciences Centre in London, Ontario, Canada, became the first to perform deepbrain stimulation with a robot!
Neurosurgeon, Dr. Jonathan Lau, reported that allthree of these robot procedures he has done since January 2023, have beensuccessful. All went home a day or two after the procedure. Helikens it to implanting a pacemaker for a bad heart.
“Thisis the same idea. People with epilepsy have a predisposition to havingseizures, so they have irregular rhythms in their brain in terms of electricalactivity. So, the same principle applies. An irregular rhythm there, so we putelectrodes in the appropriate spots with the aid of the robot which is lessintrusive than surgery. The electrodes can restore function and preventseizures.” Lau said it was almost by accident that he and his team atUniversity Hospital decided to employ it for this specific use.
“It was actually afairly routine day when we decided, ‘Okay, because we don’t have the otheroptions let’s use the robot.’ So, we inquired a little bit and it turns outnobody had done this for this indication in Canada,” he explained.
Epilepsy is one of themost common neurological disorders in the world, affecting one percent of thepopulation, more than 300,000 Canadians. And not only is there a stigma aroundthe disease itself, but Lau said there’s also a stigma attached to the verysurgery to improve life for those living with it. Brain surgery can seem scary,but Lau said new technologies actually make it safer.
“With things likerobotic assistance, with improvements in imaging, the risks of the procedureare much, much lower, and it’s just raising that awareness,” he said. Lau addedthat robot-assisted deep brain stimulation surgery is a treatment for somepatients who would not otherwise be considered for surgery.
This is another road youmight consider if your epilepsy is uncontrollable.
Neurology atthe DavidGeffen School of Medicine at UCLA . His hard-hitting emotional family medical drama, “DINGS, is told from amother’s point of view. “DINGS” is his first novel. Aside fromacclamation on internet bookstore sites, U.S. Report of Books, and theHollywood Book Review, DINGS has been advertised in recent New York Times BookReviews, the Los Angeles Times Calendar section and Publishers Weekly. DINGSteaches epilepsy and is now available in eBook, audiobook, soft and hard covereditions.
