A new procedure just FDA approved could help people with epilepsy.
Neurologist KJ Oommen helped put together the study and works at Covenant Health.
He waited 10 years for the approval.
Dr. Oommen started treating epilepsy patients in 1983.
“For epilepsy we target the interior nucleus which is in the front part of the brain,” Dr. Oommen explained.
He’s worked with a number of patients in a number of different places.
10 years ago, he and a team of international doctors made a big discovery on a new way to treat epilepsy.
It’s called deep brain stimulation and involves implanting a device that works kind of like a brain pacemaker.
It sends electrical impulses to specific places in the brain, changing brain activity.
Dr. Oommen says it’s been used for treatment in other diseases, but it wasn’t used for epilepsy until now.
“It’s been around for a few years now, made for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease,” Dr. Oommen explained. “So for that treatment we target a certain nucleus inside the brain.”
Just this year, the FDA approved deep brain stimulation for epilepsy patients.
“We worked for several years to put this together,” said Dr. Oommen.
Now that the FDA has approved this treatment, Dr. Oommen says he’s looking forward to helping his patients.
“There are patients that don’t respond to the biggest nerve stimulator and some of those patients are candidates for the deep brain stimulator,” Dr. Oommen said. “We’re trying to offer new technology and try to help those patients.”
