LEBANON: More than 3 million people in the United States live with epilepsy. Of those other people, about one in six can’t relieve their seizures with medication or surgery alone. Uncontrolled seizures can lead to an unexpected and reduced quality of life. without the ability to wait when a seizure can interrupt the day, lead to unconsciousness or a medical emergency.
The Department of Neurology and The Neurosurgery Section at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center partnered with Yale School of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic to launch the thalamus stimulation clinical trial to restore wakefulness in temporal lobe epilepsy: the first to implant neurostimulatory devices targeting 4 spaces. of the brain. After implantation, participants selected for this study are given a private epilepsy auxiliary pill to track seizures and epilepsy medications, as well as an automatic reactivity check smartwatch in epilepsy, which asks participants questions about a seizure to see if they can answer and find out if the neurostimulator effectively prevents unconsciousness loss.
On February 21, 2022, Jessica Sargent, a 34-year-old mother of an 11-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son of Barrington, the first player in the national start-up clinical trial to have a neurostimulatory device implanted in her brain at DHMC.
“Most of the time, I have no idea when a seizure is going to happen,” Sargent said, adding that she fainted from a seizure while giving birth to her daughter. “I seem to miss a lot of my life. “
Sargent’s surgery performed at DHMC through neurosurgeon and trial site investigator Joshua P. Aronson, MD, in collaboration with Barbara C. Jobst, MD, chair of the Department of Neurology and Neurocritical Care at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and principal investigator of the START site; and Hal Blumenfeld, MD, PhD, director of the Yale Clinical Neuroscience Imaging Center, famous scientist in consciousness research, and director of the national START study. focus carried out at the DHMC Surgical Innovation Center.
Sargent evolved with epilepsy at age 19 and, before his operation, had up to 3 seizures a month. She couldn’t work and her condition caused her anxiety in her daily life, not knowing if she could do something as undeniable as taking her children. outdoors without having a seizure.
When Sargent learned that the START trial could give him the chance to continue with crises, he knew it could be the solution he was looking for for 15 years. Surgery and recovery are 3 weeks away, so you have a positive outlook. in your life and future START may have for other people with epilepsy.
“When they said I would help other people, I understood why I don’t need anyone else to have to go through this,” Sargent said. “It’s been so long since I had seizures and now, with the neurostimulator device, I’m very hopeful. “
The advent of the neuromodulation generation over the past decade has been a breakthrough in the way epilepsy is treated, turning the way the brain connects from the inside to an implanted neurostimulation device, but additional innovations were needed. Previously, implanted devices targeted only two regions of the brain. to reduce, but not eliminate, seizures. Most patients continue to have seizures with loss of consciousness. This new procedure is intended to replace that.
“The intent of this revolutionary apparatus is not only to prevent seizures from occurring, but also to prevent the debilitating symptoms of seizures, such as loss of consciousness,” Aronson said. “Ideally, if the device can’t prevent the seizure, it will be the user’s way of reporting it and keeping them awake and conscious. They may not even realize they are having a seizure because of this new neurostimulator.
“While daily responsibilities like making dinner, accompanying our kids back to the bus stop, or just not having to worry about wasting conscience without warning, a source of fear for most people, for other people living with epilepsy, those are genuine fears to live through constantly. ” Jobst said. “The START study provides an opportunity for normalcy, whatever most of us take for granted, for patients with epilepsy. We are so grateful that Jessica volunteered to be the first to go through this procedure, paving the way for others and making her as critical to START’s good fortune as its researchers. As the only level four epilepsy center in northern New England, DHMC has a unique location to be a leader in new treatments for epilepsy, and we look forward to continuing the work. with Yale and Mayo Clinic to make this life-changing procedure a truth for epilepsy patients around the world. “