Study suggests promising results for epilepsy surgery

Study suggests promising results for epilepsy surgery as you can read in this BBC News report. "The most common type of surgery undertaken on people in the study was temporal lobe surgery, which focuses on the area of the brain behind the forehead between the ear and the eye, where most seizures originate. Researchers who carried out the study, published in The Lancet, reported that 63% of all patients were free of seizures two years after surgery (excluding simple partial seizures), 52% after five years and 47% after 10 years." - I can't say I'd consider these percentages very 'promising' myself...

But you may be very hesitant about embarking on brain surgery - and I'd certainly be with you on that! - and you probably wish there could be a third option, i.e. not surgery and not drugs either. - I'd be with you about avoiding anti-epilepsy drugs too because they tend to have undesirable side-effects, don't they? (Though some of the serious side-effects, e.g. weight gain, from anti-epileptics such as Epilim, can be greatly reduced by cutting down on salt and salty food. See amitriptyline and other drugs.)

Well there is indeed a third option, and it has much to commend it. - Maybe you have already heard of it? - The ketogenic diet? - The ketogenic diet is a high fat, adequate protein, low carbohydrate diet. Maybe you have heard of it but been advised that it is a difficult diet to stick to, and so you haven't given it further thought. - But compared with brain surgery! - Surely it's a no-brainer as an option to brain surgery!? - Check out this excellent, reassuring article about this kind of diet. As a matter of fact, although I do not suffer from epilepsy, I nevertheless eat a ketogenic diet and have done so for many months now and it suits me very well. You may like to consider it and discuss it with your medical adviser and read further about it on the internet.

Holes drilled in the wrong side of heads during surgery. - It's not Brain Surgery, is it?

Holes drilled in the wrong side of heads during surgery NHS watchdog warns
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"So-called wrong site surgery has been a consistent problem in the NHS and in some cases patients have died as result of having the wrong organ removed.

In 2005 the National Patient Safety Agency issued an alert to all neurosurgical units after an audit found there was no standard method of identifying which side the patient was to have surgery with some units marking with pen the side to be operated on and others marking the side not to.

Since the alert the NPSA have had another 15 reports of incidents in nine of the 36 neuro centres where surgeons have begun brain surgery on the wrong side of the head.

Another alert has now been issued saying it is still a problem.

The brain surgery incidents are among 56 wrong site surgical mistakes reported to the NPSA during 2007 and another 654 reports related to operating list errors where the wrong patient or the wrong operation had been planned."

Getting the right side? - It's a no-brainer!

A new form of three dimensional scans could revolutionise brain surgery within a year, doctors claim.

Three dimensional scans could revolutionise brain surgery
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Some forms of brain surgery currently result in one in ten patients suffering a haemorrhage during the operation, because doctors find it difficult to get an accurate picture of the brain.

The new system involves taking hundreds of two dimensional brain scans, which are then modelled into a three dimensional image of the brain by a computer program.

Another computer program also calculates blood flow in the brain as well as key points where ruptures could occur, based on signals from a tiny machine guided by the surgeon. The system requires the processing of vast amounts of data, requiring up to 20 supercomputers across Britain.

These create "maps" with tree-like arrangement of arteries and brains to allow surgeons to remove blood clots and other life-threatening conditions."

Brain tumour day surgery!

Brain tumour day surgery to be offered - Telegraph

Extract:

"Until now patients have had to stay in hospital for up to a week after brain tumour surgery to allow them to recover fully from the general anaesthetic.

Under the new technique doctors "freeze" the patient's scalp with a local anaesthetic before making an incision in their skull.

It is being pioneered by Dr Gelareh Zadeh, 35, Britain's youngest female brain surgeon, and colleagues based at University College Hospital, London.

Dr Zadeh's first patient was Deborah Calder, a 52-year-old businesswoman, who had the operation in July and has since made a full recovery."

Astounding!


Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

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