According a recent study, surgery may work better than drugs like Topamax in treating some epileptic patients.
During this study, investigators sought to learn about how surgery affects patients with frontal lobe epilepsy who have been experiencing seizures for up to 12 years. Researchers found that nearly 70 percent of them wound up being seizure-free when they had the surgery within five years of developing epilepsy in comparison to the 31 percent who received surgery later. This information was reported by the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Lara Jehi, a neurologist at Cleveland Clinic.
“What we found is if that surgery, that same surgery, happened 2 years into the epilepsy or 5 years into the epilepsy, rather than 15 or 20 years later, the chances for success were triple — sometimes even went up by 6 times,” Jehi says.
For the most part, doctors don’t recommend that epilepsy patients have surgery unless the prescription medications have been proven to be ineffective. But this often takes years to figure out. Epilepsy is a condition that affects millions of people worldwide. The condition is often treated with prescription drugs like Topamax, which is used to prevent seizures. However, the pills have been linked to serious side effects which include PPHN, oral clefts, spina bifida and neural tube defects. It is for this reason that Topamax is not recommended to be used by pregnant women and those women who are hoping to become pregnant.
If your baby has suffered from birth defects after being exposed to Topamax in-utero, contact attorney Greg Jones today for a free consultation. I am experienced at fighting Topamax lawsuits and may be able to help you recover money for your child’s injury.