Texas Children’s neurology and neurosurgery teams recently surpassed 100 laser ablation procedures. This minimally invasive surgical brain procedure has significantly improved the quality of life for many children with debilitating seizure disorders.
Ranked no. 2 in neurology and neurosurgery by U.S. News & World Report, Texas Children’s is the first hospital in the world to use real-time MRI-guided thermal imaging and laser technology to destroy brain lesions that cause epilepsy and uncontrollable seizures. Unlike a craniotomy – which removes a larger area of skull bone – the MRI-guided laser probe uses a much smaller pathway through the brain to reach a lesion, resulting in a safer, significantly less invasive alternative to craniotomy.
Stereotactic laser ablation surgery is used to treat epilepsy related to hypothalamic hamartoma (laughing seizures) and other seizure-inducing conditions such as tuberous sclerosis complex, cortical dysplasia and mesial temporal sclerosis. Laser ablation also treats certain types of brain tumors and radiation-induced necrosis that sometimes accompanies the treatment of these brain tumors.
This innovative procedure pioneered by Dr. Daniel Curry, Texas Children’s director of pediatric surgical epilepsy and functional neurosurgery, and Dr. Angus Wilfong, medical director of Texas Children’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, has resulted in improved patient outcomes with up to 78 percent of children reaching seizure free status at their one year follow up appointment.
Drs. Curry and Wilfong say improving patient outcomes using this minimally invasive approach to treating seizure disorders would not have been possible without the collaboration from the entire team at Texas Children’s including every pediatric epilepsy specialist in the department of neurology, neurosurgeons, the neurophysiology technicians who help with intraoperative monitoring during surgery, radiologists, radiology technicians who run the MRI machine, and the anesthesiologists and nursing staff who provide incredible support in and out of the operating room.
“We are honored and gratified that this procedure we pioneered here at Texas Children’s has changed the lives of our patients and the landscape of pediatric epilepsy surgery,” Curry said. “We are encouraged by our success to date and we look forward to further advancing this new field in minimally invasive pediatric epilepsy surgery.”
Click here to learn more about this breakthrough epilepsy procedure. For more information about Texas Children’s Epilepsy Center including powerful video documentaries from Texas Children’s patients who benefited from laser ablation surgery, click here and to read their blogs here.