Seizure appointments

If other treatments fail, surgery may be an option. People who experience seizures that always start in the same region in the brain benefit the most from surgery.

- Lobectomy: In this procedure, the part of your brain where seizures originate is located and removed.

- Multiple subpial transection (MST): MST may be used for patients whose seizures occur in a vital part of the brain that cannot be removed. This procedure involves making several shallow cuts in the grey matter of the brain.

- Corpus callosotomy: This surgery severs a band of fibers between the left and right halves of the brain. By severing this network of neurons, seizures cannot travel from one side of the brain to the other. It is possible, however, for seizures to occur on the side of the brain where they started, even after surgery.

- Hemispheric resection (hemispherotomy): This type of surgery is rare, as it involves completely removing or disconnecting one-half of the brain. Hemispherotomy is only utilized when medications fail to control seizures. After surgery, extensive rehabilitation is often required to recover lost brain function.

- Thermal ablation (laser interstitial thermal therapy): This is a minimally invasive procedure that concentrates highly focused energy on the specific area in the brain where seizures occur, killing the brain cells that produce them.

Anti-seizure medications are often used to treat seizures. Anti-seizure medications are available in many different types. The goal of medication is to find the best treatment for you with the least amount of adverse effects. The most common medications used to treat seizures include:

• Carbamazepine (Carbatrol, Tegretol, others)
• Phenytoin (Dilantin, Phenytek)
• Valproic acid (Depakene)
• Oxcarbazepine (Oxtellar, Trileptal)
• Lamotrigine (Lamictal)
• Gabapentin (Gralise, Neurontin)
• Topiramate (Topamax)
• Phenobarbital
• Zonisamide (Zonegran)

Cannabidiol (Epidiolex), a seizure medication derived from marijuana, has been recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Your doctor will consider your symptoms, the frequency of your seizures, your age, and other risk factors when determining which drug to prescribe. Finding the right medicine and dosage can be tricky. You may have to test a few different medications to find the drug that works best for you while producing the fewest side effects. Most of these medications won’t cure epilepsy or seizures, but they will help manage them.