Deep Brain Stimulation for Controlling Refractory Epilepsy: a Clinical Perspective

난치성 뇌전증 치료를 위한 심부뇌자극술: 임상적 관점에서

  • Kim, Woo Jun (Department of Neurology, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine) ;
  • Shon, Young-Min (Department of Neurology, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine)
  • 김우준 (가톨릭대학교 의과대학 신경과학교실) ;
  • 손영민 (가톨릭대학교 의과대학 신경과학교실)
  • Received : 2012.12.07
  • Accepted : 2012.12.10
  • Published : 2012.12.30

Abstract

Epilepsy has continued to provide challenges to epileptologists, as a significant proportion of patients continue to suffer from seizures despite medical and surgical treatments. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged as a new therapeutic modality that has the potential to improve quality of life and occasionally be curative for patients with medically refractory epilepsy who are not surgical candidates. Several groups have used DBS in drug-resistant epilepsy cases for which resective surgery cannot be applied. The promising subcortical brain structures are anterior and centromedian nucleus of the thalamus, subthalamic nucleus, and other nuclei to treat epilepsy in light of previous clinical and experimental data. Recently two randomized trials of neurostimulation for controlling refractory epilepsy employed the strategies to stimulate electrodes placed on both anterior thalamic nuclei or near seizure foci in response to electroencephalographically detected epileptiform activity. However, the more large-scale, long-term clinical trials which elucidates optimal stimulation parameters, ideal selection criteria for epilepsy DBS should be performed before long. In order to continue to advance the frontier of this field, it is imperative to have a good grasp of the current body of knowledge.

Keywords

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