ABSTRACT
Epilepsy afflicts approximately one per cent of the population of the United States. Among these patients with epilepsy, up to 30% have intractable seizures despite medications. Epilepsy surgery is often a good alternative to medically intractable focal epilepsy, however, not all patients are amenable to surgery. This chapter describes the effectiveness of closed-loop direct cortical (DC) stimulation. It aims to determine what effect DC stimulation has on seizure duration when the stimulus is applied at a known seizure focus during an epileptic seizure for patients admitted to the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU). In an attempt to offer patients who are not amenable to epilepsy surgery, various novel methods of treatment for intractable focal epilepsy have been explored as other options. Vagal nerve stimulation has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is the first adjunctive treatment for epilepsy that uses electrical stimulation.
