Minimally invasive option leads to less blood loss and shorter hospitalization versus traditional craniotomies
Using a laser for a rare brain surgery to treat drop seizures, which cause a child with epilepsy to suddenly fall, holds some advantages over a traditional open craniotomy, including shorter hospital stays for patients, a study led by UT Southwestern researchers indicates. The findings provide the first quantitative data comparing the two types of surgery, called corpus callosotomies.
“Our data shows that laser corpus callosotomies are easier on the child to recover from, and consequently, easier on parents and families,” says Angela V. Price, MD, assistant professor of neurological surgery and pediatrics at UTSW, who leads the surgical epilepsy service at Children’s Health.
In recent years, Price and a few other pediatric neurosurgeons across the country have started performing a minimally invasive procedure, in which a tiny laser is inserted through a small incision in the skull to burn away a portion of the corpus callosum, a band of tissue that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The traditional operation involves a large incision to remove a portion of the skull for access. Price and colleagues reviewed 19 patients who underwent 24 procedures: 16 had gone through open corpus callosotomies, and eight underwent laser procedures.
