Mumbai woman cured of epilepsy after part of her brain removed

Mumbai: In a unique case, a young Mumbai woman has been cured of a 12-year-old epilepsy after a neurosurgeon removed a part of her brain, said an official of Apex Hospitals here on Thursday.

The patient is Smita Trivedi, 34, (real identity withheld to protect her privacy) working in a private company, who suffered her first epileptic attack while studying in a college 12 years ago, and since then she has grappled with the disease.

She suffered recurring headaches and other problems that did not allow her to complete her higher education or attend to work regularly, hampering her professional life besides being unable to tend to her husband and a minor child.

Initially, she was put on heavy medication, including 5 medicines daily for the past five years, causing concerns to the patient and her family.

Finally, her husband approached neurosurgeon Dr. Samir Parekh at Apex Hospital's Kandivali branch for a checkup and especially, how to reduce her daily medical doses.

Post-examination, Dr. Parekh recommended a brain surgery in her case since medicines failed to control her epilepsy and the accompanying fits.

"The patient was in a panic mode due to the disease and could not concentrate on anything, including her work. We conducted neurology and neuropsychology assessments. A brain MRI and EEG showed the origin of fits from the left side of the temporal lobe of the brain," said Dr. Parekh.

Accordingly, he decided to remove the affected temporal lobe on the left side of her brain or temporal lobectomy and removal of amygdala and hippocampus in medical terms.

The brain operation in November 2023-end lasted one hour, and post-surgery, she became fully conscious, was talking normally and able to move all limbs, and in a few days, she resumed her work as usual without the problems she encountered earlier.

On the follow-up after three months, she was continuing only two medicines, and now it has been reduced to just one dose of a medicine which is a proven success in epilepsy disease.

Even this single medicine shall be reviewed after a quarter by the doctors depending on her medical progress, said a spokesperson for the hospital.

"Epilepsy is a disease that affects the central nervous system of the brain. People affected by it suffer from abnormal brain activity that ultimately leads to brain seizures, lack of consciousness and strange behaviour," he said.

As per global estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are around 50 million people who are affected and live with epilepsy, while up to nearly 1.2 crore Indians -- said to be the highest in the world -- are also suffering from the potentially fatal disease.

However, many remain deprived of proper treatment owing to social stigma to epilepsy, lack of awareness, limited access to expert healthcare or effective medicines, more incidence among males in rural areas from the lower socio-economic strata, and other factors.