The main goal of epilepsy surgery is to decrease the number of seizures you experience, the severity of the seizures or, ideally, to become seizure-free. There are several different types of epilepsy surgery.
Epilepsy surgery is brain surgery to stop or reduce the number of seizures you’re having and/or their severity. Seizures are a burst of uncontrolled electrical activity between your brain’s nerve cells, which can result in changes in your:
- Awareness.
- Muscle control (your muscles may twitch or jerk).
- Sensations.
- Emotions.
- Behavior.
Surgical approaches to manage seizures include:
- Removing the part of your brain where the seizures start.
- Disconnecting brain nerve cell communication to stop the spread of seizures to other areas of your brain.
- Using a laser to heat and kill the nerve cells where the seizures begin.
- Implanting a pacemaker-like device and electrodes that send electrical signals to block or disrupt seizure activity at its source.
- Inserting delicate electrode wires (using robotic guidance) to record seizure activity from the depths of your brain.