It's been a few weeks since I've posted. Zac's Intracranial EEG will be on September 1st. I thought it would be fitting to put some facts out about Intracranial EEG. I've had several people ask me about it. What is it? Why are they doing it? Ect... I hope this post will help to answer some questions. I'm not Web MD or a medical doctor. Just an aunt that at times becomes obsessive with Epilepsy research for selfish reasons.
When scalp EEG and neuroimaging scans don't provide enough information to preform epilepsy surgery, it may be necessary to preform an Intracranial EEG. It's an invasive procedure that places electodes on the surface of the brain to get an accurate reading of the brain's activity.
There are two types of Inrocracranial EEG's. One is called Intrapoerative Electrorticography. I'm not going to go into huge detail with this one b/c Z man is having the other, which is called Extraoperative Monitoring. In this Intracranial EEG the electrodes are placed in or over the brain in the areas where the epileptic focus is thought to reside. They are then left in and on the brain at the end of the operation. Recordings are made from electrodes while the person is awake and alert, and having seizures. They are then removed at a later date (average seems to be 4-5 days) with the hopes of gathering enough data to be able to remove the sections of the brain that are causing the seizure activity. Extraoperative EEG is usually used when surface EEG scans cannot pinpoint the seizure site, various scans show conflicting information, or when there are seizures from more than one area of the brain.
There are 3 types of electrodes used in Intracranial EEGs. There are strip electrodes, Grid electrodes, and depth electrodes. I know that he will have grid electrodes (one on each side), but I'm not 100% about which kind are going in the back. He will have 4 total.
The hope is that they will be able to collect enough data to be able to determine what the best next step is for Zac. That next step may be a surgery done at the same time that they remove these electrodes. Last I heard from my sister, it will take them about 9 hours to perform it. I could go on and on with the tiny details about it, but I don't care to. I trust that this is the best solution for Zac. I know that God doesn't make any mistakes and that Zac is hard at work on his testimony.
At this point it looks like they will be at the hospital for about 3 weeks, and then he will have a 3 month recovery time at home. Of course, if they decide to do another surgery when the electrodes are removed, then those time frames may change.
I will try my best to keep everyone posted on Zac's progress. I hope I was able to answer a few questions about the Intracranial EEG itself for some of you. Thank you all for keeping up with Zac and spreading the word. Please help us to lift him and his parents up in prayer. I know at times prayer has been all that has gotten them through.
Until next time.... stay tuned, spread the word, and count your blessings everyday.
-Zac's Aunt Court
