Iran sole Mideast nation for epilepsy surgery

Tehran, Nov 24, IRNA - Iran is the only country in the Middle East to conduct epilepsy surgery, said the secretary of the 11th International Congress of Iranian Epilepsy Association. Parviz Bahrami made the statement in an exclusive interview with Monday's edition of 'Iran Daily', noting that epilepsy surgery is a sub-specialty field which requires advanced instruments and facilities such as SPECT, PET, and FMRI. Such devices are not available throughout the country due to high costs and the sanctions imposed by the West, he noted. The High Medical Council permits the dispatch of patients abroad when the demand for surgery exceeds the medical facilities available in the country, he pointed out. The major conditions pertaining to the brain, he said, can be dealt with through psychiatry, neurosurgery, and neurology whereas epilepsy is a neurological condition. Currently there are few epilepsy subspecialists across the country, he said. Measures have been taken to offer courses in the field in epilepsy in universities, he added. He said close to 70 percent of epileptic patients can be cured via drugs, while 30 percent may suffer from refractory epilepsy. Half of them require surgery, he added. Two types of medicines are used in treating epilepsy: 1. drugs such as Phenytoin, Phenobarbital, Carbamazepine, and Sodium Valproate, which are produced domestically, he said. The other group includes new generation of drugs, 90 percent of which are produced domestically or imported, he noted. However there are problems in securing only 10 percent of the new drugs for epilepsy, he said. Epilepsy occurs due to malfunction of brain cells, but sometimes it may be a symptom of other diseases, he added. He pointed out that the disease can be cured successfully through proper diagnosis. Many people assume that epilepsy is incurable but it can be controlled or treated via medicines, he said. The congress will be held at Razi International Convention in Tehran from January 28-30, 2015. The three-day event will be attended by participants from the US, Canada, Japan, Lebanon, and a number of European countries./end