Woman has part of her brain removed after suffering from seizures

[Hum]

After suffering from seizures every four minutes, a British woman has found some relief after an operation that removed part of her brain, The Westmorland Gazette reported.

Iona Davies, 21, was diagnosed with epilepsy on the left side of her brain four years ago after she began having seizures that lasted 30 seconds each and left her disoriented, struggling with speech. The seizures worsened, eventually occurring every four minutes, and she began suffering from grand mal seizures with violent convulsions about once a week.

?The seizures had taken over my life,? Davies told The Westmorland Gazette. ?I couldn?t do any of the things other people take for granted like making a coffee or walking the dog. I just slept all the time.?

Last summer, Davies began seeing a neurologist, who monitored her brain activity and gave the go-ahead for brain surgery. Surgeons removed the two sections of her brain responsible for the attacks ? a thumb-sized part of her left temporal lobe and a smaller part of her left hippocampus.

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[Darrian]

LOL Christ.  I clicked more to see the full article, only to have to click a link there to see the entire article on another site.  Interesting story, though.  I'm glad she's not a vegetable now.

[DocM]

This kind of surgery, a hemispherectomy, can be partial like hers or total with one entire side of the brain being removed or more often disconnected.

The more aggressive procedures work better in children due to their higher level of neuroplasticity - the increased ability of a younger persons brain to adapt and recover function in the remaining tissues.

The US does about 100 a year.

[Hum]

Maybe they could have nanobots to laser out parts of a brain, some day.

[123456789A]

Are they able to do a brain transplant yet?

[DocM]

Of a limited number of brain stem cells, yes. Lots of work there.

They're also working on implants for various purposes; seizures, depression, parts of the hippocampus, brain-machine-interfaces etc.

[drlacus]

I am always amazed when I read such an article. It introduces this procedure in such way a lay person could think that this is some miracle and something that has been never done before. We do these operations regulalry at our hospital where I work as doctor, soon to be neurosurgeon resident (fingers crossed :D).

[WAQT]

@DocM considering that some brain cells store memory, a brain transplant would give another person memories of the other?

[Barney T. Administrators]

This procedure is not new, but it is a drastic last step for incurable or life debilitating seizures. It actually is an amazing procedure that brings normalcy to these types of patients. 

The hemisphere of the brain that remains fills in the vacated space and trains itself to take over the functions of the hemisphere that is removed.

[Barney T. Administrators]

Are they able to do a brain transplant yet?

 

No. That isn't even on the horizon.

[DocM]

@DocM considering that some brain cells store memory, a brain transplant would give another person memories of the other?

No. That's not how the brains filing system works. The hippocampus serves as the librarian. Putting it simply, if you implanted whole tissue it wouldn't necessarily have the book code number allowing retrieval by the hippocampus. Besides, implants so far are stem cells which are blank.

[Hum]

Are they able to do a brain transplant yet?

Only Dr. Frankenstein can. ;)

[Ci7]

Maybe they could have nanobots to laser out parts of a brain, some day.

 

and slowly integrate nano-chips to accelerate brain function at the same time!

[macoman]

Maybe they could have nanobots to laser out parts of a brain, some day.

Maybe in 500 years when SkyNet takes control of our lifes.

[123456789A]

Maybe in 500 years when SkyNet takes control of our lifes.

 

More like 5 years.