Fortis Comprehensive Epilepsy Centre launches Chennai Epilepsy Support Group

Chennai: Fortis Comprehensive Epilepsy Centre (FCEC) at Fortis Malar Hospital launches Chennai Epilepsy Support Group on the occasion of International Epilepsy Day. It is very important to have a vibrant Epilepsy Support Group driven by the patients for patient education, awareness and advocacy. As of now, there is no epilepsy patient support group active in our city. This initiative aims to bring together doctors, patients and their families and the society in one platform to the betterment of patients with epilepsy. The motto is “together we can make a difference”.

According to WHO, India has around 12 million people suffering from epilepsy. While this number contributes to one-fifth of the global statistic, the number of people availing treatment for epilepsy in India is sparse. This may be attributed to the lack of awareness, especially in the rural areas about the treatment methods available. Adding to this is the stigma attached to the condition that prevents people from reaching out for help.

“India on an average has around 10 million peoplewith epilepsy. However, only around 60% of patients come for treatment in urban area. This number is even fewer in the rural areas, where only 20-40% of patients receive appropriate treatment. Lack of proper treatment can affect education, psychosocial development and even premature deaths.” Dr. Dinesh Nayak, Head of FCEC and senior neurologist and epileptologist, Fortis Malar Hospital.

“Medical treatment is very effective in controlling seizures. Seizures in about 70-80% of children and young adults with epilepsy can be well controlled with medications alone. Some of the patients with uncontrolled epilepsy can be candidates for brain surgery to cure epilepsy” said Dr Lakshminarayanan, Pediatric Epilepsy Specialist.

The Fortis Comprehensive Epilepsy Centre (FCEC) is a one of its kind, world class, state of the art facility for diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy/seizures/seizure disorder in Chennai.Our centre regularly performs epilepsy surgery in all age groups (infants, children and adults), it is also one of the few centres in India that performs complex epilepsy surgeries in infants and young kids regularly.

FCEC team has performed more than 125 complex epilepsy operations in the last few years.Recently, FCEC has performed state- of- the- art stereo-EEGs (the presurgical evaluation of focal epilepsy) followed by resective epilepsy surgeries in four patients including two international patients successfully. Stereo-EEGs are performed routinely only in very few centres across our country. The centre also performs awake craniotomy surgeries and intracranial (invasive, subdural) EEG monitoring whenever necessary in more complex cases.

The FCEC team is headed by Dr Dinesh Nayak who is well known all over the country as an Expert in the field. Dr Sathish Kumar and Dr Lakshmi narayanan K are the other neurologists in this team. Apart from the neurologists, the team also consists of epilepsy surgeon, senior anaesthetist, critical care physicians, neuro-psychologist, EEG technologists and epilepsy care co-ordinator.