Seize Freedom Abroad: Top Destinations for Life-Changing Epilepsy Surgery

Epilepsy surgery

Epilepsy is a medical condition where the brain has an abnormal activity that causes recurring seizures. A seizure is an abrupt increase in electrical activity in the brain and may result in behavior, movement, emotion, or awareness.

Key Points about Epilepsy

• Chronic condition: Long term management is necessary.
• Can be either mild (momentary lapses in attention) or severe (convulsions, loss of consciousness).
• Not necessarily permanent: It may be overcome by the patient through treatment, or the patient can become seizure-free.

Epilepsy surgery in India

Surgery is a treatment of patients whose seizures are resistant to medications (drug-resistant or refractory epilepsy). Surgery is aimed at eliminating or isolating the area of the brain causing the seizures, without disrupting other valuable functions, such as the ability to speak, move, and remember.

Who is a Candidate?

• Individuals having drug-resistant epilepsy (had 2 or more appropriate anti-seizure drugs to failure).
• The part of the brain that causes the seizures is removable in a safe manner.
• The cause of seizures is confirmed by detailed tests (EEG, MRI, PET, neuropsychological analysis, in some cases fMRI or intracranial monitoring).

Types of Epilepsy Surgery

Resective Surgery (most common)

• Temporal Lobectomy: This involves removing part of the temporal lobe (where most of the seizures occur).
• Frontal, Parietal or Occipital Resection: Removes the focus of a seizure in other lobes.
• Lesionectomy: Destroys tumors, malformations or scar tissue that produces seizures.

Disconnection Procedures

• Corpus Callosotomy: Disconnects the brain hemispheres, which helps to prevent spreading seizure (treats severe generalized seizures).
• Multiple Subpial Transection: Incisions are made in brain tissue in lines of little size, to prevent spreading of seizures, but the brain tissue is not removed.

Neurostimulation

• Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) - the device is placed in the chest and transmits a signal to the vagus nerve to prevent seizures.
• Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS) - device records when a seizure occurs and sends electrical impulses to prevent it.
• Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) - electrodes implanted in the areas of the brain to control unwanted activity.

Palliative Surgery

• In patients who are not resectable, but who require a decrease in seizure frequency and severity.

Benefits

• As many as 6080% of appropriate patients might be rendered seizure-free (temporal lobe surgery, in particular).
• May reduce medication needs.
• Enhances living standards and self-reliance.

Best hospitals for epilepsy surgery

• Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon
• Medanta-The Medicity, Gurgaon
• Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon
• Max Hospital, Saket

Factors Affecting Cost of epilepsy surgery in India

Indian factors that affect the cost of epilepsy surgery:

Type & Complexity of Surgery

• Simple resection procedures (e.g. lesionectomy, lobectomy) are less expensive and more complicated stimulation-based interventions (VNS, DBS) are more expensive because of device and implantation costs.

Preoperative Evaluations

• Long diagnostic histories: EEG, video EEG, MRI, neuropsychological testing, PET/fMRI All increase the pre-surgical charge substantially.

Hospital Type & Location

• Tier-2 or public hospitals are usually cheaper than Metro cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad).

Surgeon & Facility Expertise

• Higher quality and reliability are offered at premium costs by reputed specialists and hospitals with JCI/NABH accreditation.

Length of Hospital stay and Room Charges

• Increased cost is brought about by longer hospital or ICU stay (e.g. caused by complications). Room choice (general ward or private suite) is also huge.

Rehabilitation/Postoperative Care

• Rehabilitation services (physical therapy, occupational therapy), follow-up visits, extra medications, and complication management are additional costs to cumulative costs.

Problems and supplementary therapies

• Expenses increase due to complications after surgery, prolonged administration of blood products, ICU bed, re-hospitalization, or additional testing requirements.

Direct vs. Indirect Costs

• Patients also have costs of travel, accommodation, loss of income and other indirect expenses-which may be very high especially to patients in rural or far-away locations.

Factors Affecting Affordable epilepsy surgery in India

Key factors that make epilepsy surgery more affordable in India:

Streamlined Presurgical Assessment Regimens

• Targeted imaging with minimal tests (such as MRI and video-EEG) can drastically reduce costs, eliminating more complicated (and expensive) modalities such as PET, SPECT, intracranial monitoring, and full-time specialists. 

Tier-2/Tier-3 City Programs

• Smaller cities (tier-2/3) have epilepsy surgery models that cut overhead drastically. They are staffed by trained epileptologists plus the local neurosurgeons, and have visiting specialists in more complicated cases, so can charge less but do not compromise the results. 

Corrected Infrastructure and Surgeon Billing

• Cheaper infrastructure and operation in India than in the western countries helps to reduce overall costs. 
• Even in a good hospital, surgeon charges in India are significantly lower than those in a foreign country. 

Cheap Packages in private Hospitals

• In most Indian hospitals there are package deals that include assessment, surgeries, hospital stay and after surgery treatment. These all-inclusive packages are usually more affordable together with reduced fees.

Lessening Indirect Patient Costs

• Non-medical expenses such as accommodation, transportation and lost wages can be minimised by limiting the number of trips to be made, local centres to conduct the evaluation and travel time.

Epilepsy surgery in India with GetWellGo

GetWellGo is regarded as a leading supplier of healthcare services. We help our foreign clients choose the best treatment locations that suit their needs both financially and medically.

We offer:

• Complete transparency
• Fair costs.
• 24 hour availability.
• Medical E-visas
• Online consultation from recognized Indian experts.
• Assistance in selecting India's top hospitals for Epilepsy surgery.
• Expert neurologist with a strong track record of success
• Assistance during and after the course of treatment.
• Language Support
• Travel and Accommodation Services
• Case manager assigned to every patient to provide seamless support in and out of the hospital like appointment booking
• Local SIM Cards
• Currency Exchange
• Arranging Patient’s local food