Epilepsy surgery

Epilepsy surgery is the treatment of epilepsy by means of neurosurgical procedures. She is now an excellent proven and recognized form of treatment in specialized centers. If the drug treatment of epilepsy does not lead to a satisfactory life situation, the possibility of epilepsy surgery should be checked. This is usually a pre-surgical patient clarification is required.

Only in focal, ie, herd -like epilepsies, the resulting generating brain area (' epileptogenes area " ) can be removed. By electrocorticography it is possible to limit the triggering nervous tissue with an accuracy of a few millimeters. However, it should as far as possible be excluded that a surgical removal of this area would lead to disturbances in being, in behavior or cognitive performance, which is found by the presurgical epilepsy diagnosis. A temporary implantation of electrodes under the skull or even in the brain ( deep electrode ) can give precise information on the location of the attack origin and a prediction of memory performance after surgery. This minimizes the risk that too many nerve cells are removed, and is of great importance, since the stove often applied directly to areas of memory or the Language Centre (see Wachkraniotomie ). In addition to this special investigation play the imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI ), that is, the representation of the brain slice images, and the Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI ) play an important role.

In temporal lobe epilepsy with mesial temporal sclerosis, a front temporal lobe or selective resection of the amygdala and hippocampus, the amygdala - selective Hippokampektomie be performed. In serious cases, known as hemispherectomy removal of a complete hemisphere of the brain is performed under certain conditions.