A UK-based teenager, Oran Knowlson, has grow to be the primary particular person on the planet to be fitted with a mind implant to assist carry his epileptic seizures beneath management. The deep mind stimulation (DBS) machine, which sends electrical indicators deep into the mind, has diminished Knowlson’s daytime seizures by 80%.
Epilepsy, a situation that results in recurring seizures, sees an individual expertise jerking of legs and arms, short-term confusion, staring spells, or stiff muscle tissues. It’s attributable to irregular electrical exercise within the mind.
The illness has no identifiable trigger in practically 50% of the instances. Nevertheless, head trauma, tumours within the mind, some infections like meningitis, and even genetics can result in epilepsy. It could enhance the danger of accidents, drownings, and falling.
In India, between 3 and 11.9 per 1,000 individuals endure from epilepsy, in keeping with a remark in a 2022 Lancet research. Though a number of anti-seizure medicines can be found out there, 30% of the sufferers stay immune to remedy.
How does the machine work?
The neurostimulator delivers fixed electrical impulses to the mind to disrupt or block irregular seizure-causing indicators.
A 3.5 cm sq., 0.6 cm in thickness, the machine was surgically implanted in Knowlson’s cranium and anchored utilizing screws, The Guardian reported. The physician then inserted two electrodes deep into his mind till they reached the thalamus — a relay station for all of the motor and sensory data. The ends of the electrodes had been related to the neurostimulator.
The machine was switched on after Knowlson recovered from his surgical procedure. It may be recharged by a wi-fi headphone.
What’s DBS?
The machine makes use of DBS, which can also be utilised for motion issues related to Parkinson’s, and different neurological circumstances. Though DBS has been tried earlier than for childhood epilepsy, till now neurostimulators had been positioned within the chest (as an alternative of the mind), with wires operating as much as the mind the place the leads had been positioned on the affected area, in keeping with the BBC.
“Use of deep mind stimulation for the remedy of epilepsy will not be new. We now have been doing it for practically a decade. There are new gadgets getting into the market, however you will need to perceive that it isn’t a miracle treatment,” Dr Manjari Tripathi, head of the neurology division at AIIMS, New Delhi, stated.
It isn’t the primary line of remedy for epilepsy. Docs first use anti-seizure medicines and a ketogenic eating regimen, which is excessive in fat and low in carbohydrates. Though the explanations will not be nicely understood, a ketogenic eating regimen is thought to scale back seizures, even in youngsters with treatment-resistant epilepsy. If that doesn’t work, docs can perform mind surgical procedure to take away a portion of the mind the place the seizures originate.
One other surgical procedure referred to as corpus callosotomy could also be urged in some youngsters. On this, docs take away a component that connects each halves of the mind, which doesn’t enable irregular electrical indicators to journey from one half of the mind to a different.
“Surgical procedure continues to be preferable to implanting a DBS machine. At the moment, the DBS gadgets accessible out there scale back seizures by round 40%. As compared, seizures drop by practically 90% if the affected person undergoes surgical procedure,” Dr Tripathi stated.
How costly is DBS?
“Neurostimulators value about Rs 12 lakh. There are further surgical prices that one has to pay in personal hospitals, rising the associated fee to about Rs 17 lakh,” Dr Tripathi stated. As compared, a mind surgical procedure prices between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000, she added.
Conserving this in thoughts, Dr Tripathi stated that such gadgets must be urged solely for many who have epilepsy which originates from totally different elements of the mind (as an alternative of 1 focus), making operations much less viable. DBS may also be an choice when medicine and eating regimen have failed to manage seizures.
Among the many 1000’s of epilepsy sufferers that AIIMS is presently treating, solely seven have undergone DBS remedy — round one per yr, Dr Tripathi stated.