Breakthrough In Epilepsy Treatment, Patient Gets Device Implanted
June 23rd, 2010 - 5:05 pm ICT by GDBy Ranjan Bhaduri
Sydney, June 23, (THAINDIAN NEWS) An Australian hospital treating an epilepsy patient has become the first hospital in the world to have successfully implanted a device within the patient’s body which shall issue warnings about impending attacks. The patient Jason Dent had the new device being implanted right into his chest and is wired to connect with the brain. The surgery was performed by the medicos at St Vincent’s Hospital.
The device works on signals and electric pulses which originates in the chest and then gets transmitted to the brain via the wires. The readings are monitored by a wireless pager that the patient holds in his hand.
The doctors while explaining the mechanism of the device said that a red light indicates a high seizure. Similarly, a white light indicates that the seizure is a moderate one and blue light denotes a low risk seizure. The device is also capable of emitting a sound or vibrates to notify the patient about any minor changes in the risk level.
The patient Jason Dent (26) told the media that he had suffered seizures since he was 4 years old. He also said that many a times he had been through certain periods when he never had any seizures in a span of two or three months. The patient recently escaped an accident while crossing the road. Apart from Jason Dent, there were nine other Australians who had participated in the two-year trial program for the device. Now that the medicos have been able to put the device in its proper place, they plan to launch the device in the market by 2014.
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Tags: australians, breakthrough, doctors, electric pulses, epilepsy, epilepsy treatment, june 23, medicos, minor changes, periods, red light, risk level, s hospital, seizure, seizures, signals, span, st vincent, three months, wireless pager