A child from Monzón overcomes epileptic seizures of up to eight hours with a novel intervention

An 11-year-old boy from Monzón who for five years suffered epileptic seizures that prevented him from leading a normal life has overcome these attacks derived from Rasmussen syndrome of which he was diagnosed at the age of eight by the neuropediatrics service at the Miguel Servet Hospital. from Zaragoza. Young Adriel has overcome these epileptic attacks after undergoing a novel laser intervention at the Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Hospital, the only health center that offers it in Spain's public health care network.

The child did not respond to pharmacological treatments when he suffered severe seizures that lasted up to eight hours, according to his mother, Patricia Verón. Rasmussen syndrome is a rare neuronal disease that affects children under 10 years of age with very few cases in Spain. It is a chronic, progressive, inflammatory brain disorder that manifests with treatment-resistant focal neocortical motor seizures and culminates in severe impairment with hemiparesis, cognitive delay, and aphasia. After the first attacks, six years ago, Patricia took her son to the Barbastro Hospital and from there he was transferred to the Miguel Servet Hospital. Pediatric specialists found the difficult diagnosis of the disease. “The doctors who were my angels said that they only knew of three cases with Adriel's and they advised me to go to Barcelona,” says her mother. The child was treated at the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in 2018 and after various treatments last year it was decided to apply this new technique.

Adriel is one of just over 20 children from all over Spain who have benefited so far from this technique, laser thermal ablation, which consists of introducing a probe into the child's brain and repeatedly applying heat to the focus that causes the epilepsy until it is destroyed. Adriel underwent surgery in October and since then he has not suffered epileptic seizures.

“It has been incredible,” says his mother, excited and very grateful for the recovery of her son “who suffered disabling seizures, up to almost a hundred a day, and there were weeks when he could not leave the house.” Adriel is now a healthy boy, who is in 5th grade “and gets excellent grades,” his mother explains proudly.

As a result of the seizures of this syndrome, Adriel suffers a physical disability, having less strength in the left side of his body, and he cannot move some of his fingers. His mother is confident that the technique will not have neuronal sequelae and that the cells will regenerate, although we will have to be vigilant given that he was the first child in Spain with Rasmussen syndrome to undergo this treatment (it had previously been used to treat tumors).

The Sant Joan de Déu Hospital is the only hospital that provides public healthcare in Spain that applies a pioneering laser treatment to cure children suffering from refractory epilepsy (that does not respond to drugs) and, therefore, cares for patients of all ages. Spain.

It is a less invasive and safer technique than traditional surgery (craniotomy or opening of the skull) because it allows the patient to recover in a shorter period of time and be able to return home within 24-48 hours (with surgery traditional, the admission time is 8 days).

This type of ablation is especially indicated in cases where the focus of epilepsy is located in deep areas of the brain, difficult to access and near areas of great sensitivity. Surgeons use it, in addition to treating epilepsy, to destroy small brain tumors and perform brain disconnections (in order to prevent an injury in one hemisphere from affecting the other).