London Health Sciences Centre's (LHSC) Children's Hospital is improving the lives of paediatric epilepsy patients using ROSA, a fully donor-funded robotic arm.
The ROSA One Brain is used in minimally invasive, robot-assisted surgical procedures for epilepsy patients, such as Radiofrequency Thermocoagulation.
The procedure uses radio waves, through electrodes to heat and destroy tissue in the areas of the brain that have been identified as the source of seizure activity.
"This newer procedure, using the robotic arm, is less scary for patients and their families because it is all done through electrodes in a controlled manner. It is also minimally invasive with an amazingly fast recovery time, compared to an open skull surgery," said Dr. Andrea Andrade, Director of the Paediatric Epilepsy Program at LHSC's Children's Hospital.
Radiofrequency Thermocoagulation has changed the life of 11-year-old Makayla Douglass. The young girl was diagnosed with epileptic seizures at the age of one, and at one point was suffering from as many as 30 seizures a day.
"Most of the seizure activity would happen in the evening and overnight hours," her mother, Jeannie said. "She would go to sleep and then it would start, but then last summer it got so bad, she would have multiple seizures an hour throughout the night," she added.
The increased seizure activity prompted Makayla and her family to make the choice to become the first paediatric patient in all of Canada to undergo Radiofrequency Thermocoagulation.
"We were able to implant electrodes directly into Makayla's brain to determine where the seizure activity was coming from, which we concluded was in a deep area of the brain called the insula, an area that is difficult to access for a surgical procedure," Dr. Andrade explained. "From there, we placed electrodes in the insula structure and through a controlled temperature procedure called ablation, in which the tissue in the area was warmed up, we were able to remove parts of the area causing the seizures," she concluded.
The initial procedure was a success and reduced Makayla's seizures by 70 per cent. The family had the procedure done a second time, which has resulted in Makayla being seizure-free.
"It has given Makayla her life back," her dad, Jeff said.
"It is incredible that we have this option here in London, it has changed our whole family and Makayla is happy and finally able to be a kid," he added.
