For people experiencing epilepsy, it’s natural to wish for a cure. Finding a cure is an intense focus of modern research, but we don’t yet have drugs that can cure epilepsy in the way that an antibiotic can cure strep throat. That said, there are some cases in which a person’s epilepsy may disappear forever.
The most common case in which seizures may disappear forever is in children who simply “outgrow” their epilepsy as their brains mature. For example, with benign rolandic epilepsy or childhood absence epilepsy, the seizures are expected to disappear by puberty. In other cases it’s harder to predict, but if a child’s seizures are completely controlled for at least two years, a follow up brain wave test, or EEG, is normal, and the child’s health is good overall, then the doctor and parents may decide to carefully reduce and even stop the seizure medication. In many cases, the seizures never return, but if they do, the medication is restarted.
[See: Was That a Seizure?]
For most people experiencing epilepsy, the seizures can be controlled with medication. But for some people, the response to medication is imperfect. If seizures continue despite everyone’s best efforts, in some cases, specialized surgery may be the answer.
Sometimes, epilepsy is essentially “cured” with surgery. Long-term statistics from Cleveland Clinic and elsewhere indicate that 60 to 65 percent of people overall have no seizures whatsoever after epilepsy surgery, even at the 10- to 15-year mark. Many of these people no longer require treatment with seizure medication and are living active lives.
[See: 12 Questions to Ask Before Discharge.]
April Sharon is one of these people. Somehow, she and her gracious mother Debra find time every year to send beautiful, carefully chosen flowers to her epilepsy specialist on the anniversary of April’s successful epilepsy surgery. This year, the anniversary was her 25th. For all practical purposes, April’s epilepsy is cured.
Until research finds other cures, epilepsy surgery remains one of our best hopes for a lasting result. The first step in considering epilepsy surgery is to consult with an epilepsy specialist, who will perform detailed testing to determine whether or not the seizures are all arising from a single troublesome area of the brain. When the answer is yes, the intent of the surgery is to remove tissue from the troublesome brain area, in order to stop the seizures from recurring. But before any form of surgery is recommended, a unanimous decision must be reached through the collaboration of all the specialists on the team.
[See: 10 Ways to Prepare for Surgery.]
All surgery entails some risks, but fortunately, for epilepsy surgery, the risks are low. In fact, research has shown that it’s actually safer to proceed with surgery than to continue for a lifetime with uncontrolled epilepsy. Research has shown that people who have epilepsy surgery live an average of five years longer than people with ongoing seizures who are treated only with medication. Furthermore, these years are “better lived.” For many people who qualify, surgery leads to a much better quality of life.
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Is There a Cure for Epilepsy? originally appeared on usnews.com
