Gleneagles Health City Chennai Successfully Perform Rarest Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery on a 23-Year-Old Patient with Progressive Myoclonus Epilepsy

~ In the first stage of surgery patient was awake while the electrodes were implanted into the brain through two small holes ~

Chennai, 22nd April 2024: Gleneagles Health City Chennai has successfully treated a 23-year male from Nagpur suffering from progressive myoclonus epilepsy since he was 10 years old. The patient underwent surgery and has recovered very well with hardly any symptoms of having this rare type of epilepsy. It has been nearly six months since his treatment. Progressive Myoclonus Epilepsy is a rare epilepsy where the individual suffers unsteady walking, uncontrolled sudden jerking of the limbs which can result in multiple falls and dropping of objects from hands, violent shaking of the entire body with unconsciousness, slurred and unclear speech, and drooling of saliva. There are many causes for this condition, most of which are due to abnormalities in the genes. Treatment with anti-seizure medication usually results in only partial reduction of the jerks and unsteadiness.

The patient was undergoing treatment for few years under the care of an expert epilepsy specialist in his hometown, but since there was not much improvement in his condition, he was referred to Dr. Dinesh Nayak, Gleneagles Health City Chennai (GHCC). Detailed evaluation at GHCC with video-EEG, MRI etc. confirmed the diagnosis of PME.

Dr. Dinesh Nayak, Director of Neurology and Advanced Centre for Epilepsy, Gleneagles Health City Chennai said that although he was on five antiseizure medications he was still having seizures, was drooling, unsteady in walking, was having repeated myoclonus, and had sever slurring of speech, resulting in poor quality of life. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is rarely performed for Progressive Myoclonus epilepsy due to the patient’s condition, but there were no other options for this patient’s treatment, so we had multiple discussions with his family members and decided to perform Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS),” added Dr. Dinesh Nayak

The Deep Brain Stimulation surgery was performed by Dr. Nigel Symss, Head of Neurosurgery & team. The surgery took nearly 7 to 8 hours and was done in two stages. “In the first stage, the patient was awake while the electrodes were implanted into the brain through two small holes. Special equipment like Stereotactic Frame and Navigation and Microelectrode recordings required for implanting the electrodes accurately into a specific nucleus in the brain was required. In the second part of the surgery, the patient had a battery implanted into his chest wall. Dr. Ramanan, the anesthetist in-charge, handled the Anesthesia in the surgery and the ICU. The battery was switched on after a few days post the surgery,” said Dr. Nigel Symss, Head of Neurosurgery, Gleneagles Health City Chennai

This is truly a remarkable surgery with our excellent team of specialists like Dr. Nigel and Dr. Dinesh along with Dr. Ramanan performing at their best. This is incidentally the rarest surgery of this sort has been done in India for a rare epilepsy like DBS. We encourage more cases like this to come to Gleneagles Health City and get treated successfully,” said Dr. Nagesh K Rao, CEO, Gleneagles Health City Chennai.

After six months of surgery, the patient is displaying good recovery, with no more falls, jerks, and no drooling of saliva. He has regained his life and his medications have also been lowered.

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