16-month old infant gets relief from ‘uncontrolled seizure attacks’ at MGM Healthcare Chennai

Chennai, July 15, 2021: MGM Healthcare, a multi-specialty quaternary care hospital in the heart of the Chennai, today announced that it had successfully performed a rare surgery to treat uncontrolled seizure attacks in a 16-month old infant. A 15-member team under the leadership of Dr. Sridhar K, Director and Group Head, Institute of Neurosciences & Spinal Disorders, MGM Healthcare successfully conducted this surgery on the patient on 9^th April 2021.

Speaking about the case Dr. K Sridhar explained, “Master. Jai Prajith a 16-month old toddler from Chennai started having seizures from almost the time he was born and this problem only got worse within the next few months.”

Dr. Arulmozhi, Consultant Pediatric Neurologist explaining the clinical condition of the child said, “The baby had a complicated birth history and developed severe asphyxia soon after. The child was admitted in the Neonatal ICU for 28 days and was on ventilation for 4 days. During that period he started getting episodes of seizures and by the time he turned 3 months, the infant experienced 40-50 jerks per day for which he was put on various medications. He was administered upto 4 drugs but no improvement was observed.”

He further said, “At the age of 1 year and 4 months the child was on 5 anti-epilepsy medication but he was still experiencing 40 plus attacks per day. When Seizures or Epileptic attacks do not come under control with medications we must explore the possibility of a surgical solution. It is imperative to act quickly in children as their growing brain will be affected by continued seizures, which can result into poor development.”

The child’s problem was discussed at the Institute of Neurosciences and Spinal Disorders. Dr. K Sridhar and his team evaluated the child to see if surgery could help the child. An MRI was initiated which showed that the child’s brain was badly affected by the birth asphyxia. The EEG workup showed multiple separate foci in the brain from where the seizures originated and spread to the entire brain.

Dr. K Sridhar, Director, Institute of Neurosciences and Spinal Disorders, MGM Healthcare said, “We discussed the problem and findings with the infant’ parents. We informed them that a surgery could be performed which would stop the spread of the seizures from one side to the other and therefore reduce the attacks. It was a difficult situation as the child’s brain was not properly developed and also had structural issues by birth. After multiple sessions of discussion with us, the parents gave their consent for the surgery. The surgery – Anterior Corpus Callosotomy is a rare procedure to be performed on children so small. As this was the only option available to help the child, the surgery was performed. Anterior Corpus Callosotomy involves going between the 2 halves of the brain, delicately separating them and then dividing the connecting nerve fibres. This was done under high magnification and we had continuous recording of the EEG done during the surgery.”

He further added, “as the sectioning was completed the EEG showed reduction in the seizure spikes. It was an encouraging sign for us as it showed us that we were on the right track”.

Dr. V Ponniah, Associate Director, Institute of Neurosciences and Spinal Disorders, MGM Healthcare said, “Anesthesia of infants like Jai Prajith undergoing major surgery like this is always a challenge. More important, after the surgery the baby has to be monitored in the Neuro ICU with utmost care.”

Dr Sridhar said “We are happy to inform you that Baby Jai Prajith has recovered well and the seizure attacks have now completely stopped. His need for seizure drugs has also come down considerably. We are proud to say that we have been able to help this child and his parents, not only in the fact that he has become seizure free but also to give the family an opportunity to have a good quality of life.”

Speaking on their experience, Master Jai’s parents said, “We would like to thank Dr. K Sridhar and his team at MGM Healthcare for giving us the confidence to go through with the surgery and for relieving our son from the uncontrolled seizure attacks. We also thank Dr. Arulmozhi and Dr. Arasar, Pediatrician, for guiding us towards having the surgery. It was a testing period for us and we would like to extend our gratitude to the medical, nursing and administrative teams for their diligent service and care during these difficult times for us. We are happy that our son has started responding to us and with the stopping of the fits will have a good brain development.”

As of today, the child is free of seizures and is on a minimal dose of 2 drugs. He is responding better and has started making eye contact with his mother which is a good sign. By controlling the attacks, the child has seen improvement in his cognitive abilities and a better quality of life for him as well as the parents. This way we are able to give the child’s brain the best possible chance of development and growth in the future.