Computational tools may help solve the biggest pain point of epilepsy surgeries

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders affecting about 60 lakh people in India. Reports suggest that in 70% of these patients, seizures can be controlled with medical treatment. However, 30% of patients (approximately 16 lakh patients in India) have drug-resistant epilepsy. This is a severe form of epilepsy that does not respond to medical treatment.

One option to cure such patients is surgery. Surgery can be used to remove the ‘epileptic focus’ from where the seizure originates in patients who have not been helped by medical treatment. However, a major challenge in epilepsy surgery is the accurate identification of this ‘epileptic focus’.

How computational tools may help solve the biggest problem
To overcome this challenge, the Centre for Epilepsy at Amrita Hospital, Kochi, claims to have conducted multiple studies between the years 2015 and 2019 in around 100 difficult-to-treat epilepsy patients.