Epilepsy Unit

The Epilepsy Unit at Cruces University Hospital is the reference center for the care of this pathology in the entire North of Spain. It is a Multidisciplinary unit, which main function resides in long term surveillance practice Video-EEG. This has three essential indications. The differential diagnosis of epileptic seizures and other types of seizures (specially pseudo-epileptic and syncope), to warrant a more accurate categorization of the type of seizures and/or epileptic syndrome, to optimize the treatment and assess if the patient is candidate for surgical treatment.

Surgery is the leading option in the treatment of refractory epilepsies, which are those not adequately controlled with pharmacological treatment. The prototypical "surgically treatable" syndrome is Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, secondary to medial sclerosis of the hippocampus. This one represents most of the surgical patients. Another type of surgery, which is more complex and requires accurate "invasive" electrode surveillance, is extratemporal surgery.

In those cases where surgery is not feasible, patients might be offered the possibility to have inserted a vagus nerve stimulator.

REFERENCE HOSPITAL