Epilepsy Treatment

John Leever, MD:

If you get an MRI, typically it's interpreted by a radiologist, someone trained to read imaging. But one thing I would say that people don't realize is, you don't know who's going to read that scan beforehand. And there are general radiologists that just read all parts of the body and are trained equally in everything. And you can do additional training just in the area of expertise. And as a neuroradiologist, you do additional training just in neuro imaging. So of course it's an advantage looking at an MRI brain, something that you have additional training just in that type of imaging. And not knowing what you're going to get. So I would encourage patients to go to an institution like KU, where everything is read by a subspecialist, it has a clear advantage for any kind of diagnosis.

Alexis Del Cid:

Well, clearly in this circumstance it made the world of difference.

John Leever, MD:

Epilepsy specifically, because I believe we rank know in the top two or three nationally by procedural volumes. So the amount of epilepsy imaging that I'm able to see compared to anywhere in the country is, it's exceptional. And just that experience, all good results are probably just a result of training and experience and you just can't get that experience anywhere else.

Alexis Del Cid:

It's not the test. It's who's taking the test. Who's reading the test. Where you're getting the test. Then the expert you're going to meet with after you get that scan, which is huge.

Carol Ulloa, MD:

The last decade in epilepsy has been really outstanding in terms of new treatments and developments and research. And so probably one of the biggest areas that is evolving right now before my eyes as I practice is Neuromodulation. And so that's devices, implantable devices for epilepsy. That includes the deep brain stimulator and the responsive neuro stimulator RNS. And so there's things, they were FDA approved several years ago, but there are new ways in which we're using them. And so we're really doing things now that three years ago we were not doing. So it's really an exciting, exciting field and helping people that have been told that they were not surgical candidates and now they are. But I do want to just emphasize that our goal is can we pinpoint the seizures? Is it a safe area of the brain to remove? Because ultimately that's the type of surgery that can lead to the outcomes that Grace had.

Alexis Del Cid:

Ideal outcome?

Carol Ulloa, MD:

Exactly. The devices are excellent and they can lessen the number of seizures that person has, but much less likely that they would actually stop the seizures completely.

Eva Florido: My son Frank was diagnosed at the age of 18, although he did have his first seizure at 14. His challenge was really accepting his condition and realizing that he would have to depend on other individuals for his rides to work and other things.

Frank Hernandez: Being diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 18 brought a lot of limitations to a little bit more simple things in life as far as school, sleeping, driving, work even. As far as my education, it was definitely something that I had to go ahead and continuously cut short because I was spending more time in the doctor's office as opposed to class.

Eva Florido: As a mother, I just felt very distressed that they had not come up with any medication that would help calm his seizures. I actually heard a commercial about this technique that they were doing, the surgery, and once I heard the commercial, it really gave me hope, and that's where I was introduced to Dr. Ulloa.

Carol Ulloa, MD: So I'm very proud about our Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. I think that we're really passionate about treating patients with epilepsy and really giving them the best care possible. Our focus is epilepsy, and I think that really adds a certain degree of expertise.

Patrick Landazuri, MD: The first thing I think about is that so many patients don't really know what their diagnosis is. What they're often told is that they have a seizure disorder, which I think in some ways is akin to telling someone with a heart attack that they have chest pain. I mean, there are lots of reasons why people can have chest pain, and I think it's important for people to know why.

Dr. Landazuri: Similarly, there are lots of reasons why people can have seizures, and I think it's important for people to understand the cause of their seizures, and that's really their specific epilepsy diagnosis. I think when we're able to do that, we're able to offer them more specific treatments, things like surgery, which most often people have never heard of, and are very highly effective treatments.

Dr. Landazuri: By the time we see these patients, they've been on 7, 8, 9 medications, when the research pretty clearly indicates that after that third medicine, they have a less than 1% chance of being seizure-free.

Nancy Hammond, MD: I think there are several barriers that patients with epilepsy face when they're trying to get the best care. The first barrier is getting the correct diagnosis, so a lot of times people have strange things that happen to them and they're not entirely sure what's going on with them.

Caleb Pearson, PsyD: I think oftentimes when people think of epilepsy, they think of seizures, when actually there's a number of comorbidities that are seen with epilepsy, things like depression, anxiety. These are things that are often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed with people.

Dr. Ulloa: Living with epilepsy, living with having seizures affects your life, the lack of the ability to drive, sometimes the lack of being able to hold a job.

Frank Hernandez: I felt a lot more comforted because of a lot of the more progressive information that came from Dr. Ulloa.

Dr. Ulloa: If I could tell patients with epilepsy 1 thing, it would be that it's not OK for them to continue to have seizures. It's such a simple premise, but I think a lot of people really don't know that and don't understand that.

Dr. Hammond: There's always new treatments coming out, there's new medications coming out, and so if you have epilepsy and you're continuing to have seizures, you need to ask your doctor, "Is there something more I can do?" Because this is not OK. It's not OK to live with seizures.

Dr. Ulloa: So with that knowledge, then they will want to seek more information, and I feel like that's my primary job is to give patients as much information about their condition as I can.

Dr. Ulloa: Schedule your appointment with our comprehensive epilepsy team today by calling 913-588-1227.