Miracle for a 12-year-old girl with drug-resistant epilepsy

29/11/2021 11:15

The very first seizures happened from 3 months of age, there were days that suffered from 3 seizures a day, N.P.A (12 years old) has just been successful in epilepsy surgery by doctors at Viet Duc University Hospital.

 

Over the past 12 years, sudden and continuous seizures have greatly affected A’s life. During that time, her family took her to many hospitals for treatment, using variety of drugs and increased the dose, but her condition did not improve. Recurrent epilepsy makes the child afraid in life and activities with people around, difficulties in learning.

 

Recently, patient went to Viet Duc University Hospital and was consulted by the neurologists, determined to have hippocampal sclerosis (HS), and underwent right HS surgery. After surgery, patient did not appear to have seizures again, there was no neurological deficit after surgery, and the postoperative condition was stable.

 

 

Dr. Tran Dinh Van – MS, Neurosurgery I Department, Viet Duc University Hospital shares: For children, once drug-resistant epilepsy has been identified, surgery should be performed as soon as possible, so that the child’s brain can be normalized again, children can study, live, and integrate into daily life. There have been many cases of children with drug-resistant epilepsy who have had successful surgery with good results and opened the future for children. There was a child who had surgery at the age of 2 and a half 5 years ago, now no longer has seizures when he revisits doctor and goes to school as normal as his peers.

 

Dr. Tran Dinh Van – MS adds: Epilepsy has become a burden disease of global, especially in developing countries like Vietnam, patients with epilepsy are restricted from participating in academic, work and social activities, at risk of disability functionally and psychologically very large. Today, with the development of more diverse epilepsy drugs, drug therapy remains the cornerstone of this disease. However, among them, about 20% to 60% are still ineffective with drugs (resistant), all the studies in the world since many years, confirm that surgery for drug-resistant epilepsy is still away opens great hope for people with epilepsy, especially for children. Common causes of drug-resistant epilepsy such as HS, cortical dysplasia, low-grade glioma, hypothalamic excess tissue mass… were detected by modern magnetic resonance imaging 3.0T, video EEG and epileptic expert panel assessment. Surgery should be carried out as soon as possible, especially for children with drug-resistant epilepsy, the cure rate for the group with detected lesions is up to 70-85%, risk of complications is low. Therefore, the method is strongly recommended in the world. As surgical methods bring great hope to stop epilepsy in children, help prevent the formation of complex epileptic networks, and facilitate the normalization of children’s mental development.…