Spectrum Health has employed a new and sophisticated medical device to ease some symptoms associated with epilepsy as well as Parkinson’s disease. This move makes Spectrum the first hospital in the nation to use this device for a patient with epilepsy.
“The hope is to ultimately produce complete seizure freedom for that patient.”
That’s Dr. Sanjay Patra - a neurosurgeon at Spectrum Health. He’s also Spectrum’s Division Chief of Neurosurgery as well as the Director of Epilepsy Surgery. Dr. Patra was the first in the nation to use the “SenSight Directional Lead System” back in June. The device, approved by the Food and Drug Administration treats certain types of epilepsy and some symptoms associated with movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor. Dr. Patra says it benefits the patients by helping restore the patient’s brain to a state that’s less likely to produce seizures.
“So, patients with epilepsy have that cause the brain to generate seizures. This device when place appropriately, makes the brain, much less likely to produce seizures.”
And Dr. Patra says while the goal is to one day produce complete seizure freedom, the reduction they can get now, is quite substantial.
“The seizure reduction on average is in that 50-80 percent range. And interestingly, these devices tend to improve over time. Meaning that, the longer the patient has the device in, the lower the likelihood for them to have seizures. So this device is somehow re-programming the brain to produce less seizures and we don’t really know how that is occurring at this point.”
In addition to Spectrum being the first in the nation to use the device for epilepsy. It was also the first in the state to use it to treat a patient with Parkinson’s disease as well.
