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Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staffOver the past decade, the number of treatment options has increased for people who have frontal lobe seizures. There are newer types of anti-seizure medications and a variety of surgical procedures that may help if medications don't work.
Medications
All anti-seizure drugs seem to work equally well at controlling frontal lobe seizures, but not everyone becomes seizure-free on medication. Your doctor may try several different types of anti-seizure drugs, or have you take a combination of drugs to control your seizures.
Surgery
If your seizures can't be controlled adequately with medications, your doctor may recommend surgery.
- Removing the focal point. If your seizures always begin in one specific spot in your brain, removing that small portion of brain tissue may reduce or eliminate your seizures.
- Isolating the focal point. If the portion of the brain that's causing seizures is too vital to remove, surgeons may make a series of cuts to help isolate that section of the brain. This prevents seizures from moving into other parts of the brain.
- Stimulating the vagal nerve. Another surgical option is to implant a device — similar to a cardiac pacemaker — to stimulate your vagus nerve. The device is inserted under the skin of your chest and wires from it are threaded under your skin and then wrapped around the vagus nerve in your neck. This procedure usually reduces the number of seizures people experience.
- Seizures and epilepsy: Hope through research. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/epilepsy/detail_epilepsy.htm. Accessed July 25, 2008.
- Benbadis SR. Localization-related epilepsy: Causes and clinical features. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 25, 2008.
- Tinuper P, et al. Movement disorders in sleep: Guidelines for differentiating epileptic from non-epileptic motor phenomena arising from sleep. Sleep Medicine Reviews. 2007;11(4):255-267. Accessed July 25, 2008.
- Spencer SS. Seizures and Epilepsy. In: Goldman L, et al. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/100381093-11/729142684/1492/1429.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2805-5..50431-6--cesec5_18072. Accessed July 25, 2008.
- Epilepsies and Epilepsy Syndromes. In: Goetz CG. Textbook of Clinical Neurology. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/100601158-3/729786871/1488/445.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-3618-0..10052-9--s0170_4555. Accessed July 28, 2008.
- Neurological diagnostic tests and procedures. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/misc/diagnostic_tests.htm. Accessed July 28, 2008.
- Schuele SU, et al. Intractable epilepsy: Management and therapeutic alternatives. Lancet Neurology. 2008;7(6):514-524.
- Schachter SC. Surgical therapy of epilepsy in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 28, 2008.
- Schachter SC, et al. Vagus nerve stimulation therapy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 28, 2008.
- Cascino G (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Aug. 26, 2008.
