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Informative Essay On Hemispherectomy

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What is a Hemispherectomy and what is the quality of life after one?

The brain is a very complex organ. It is home to everything that makes you human and able to function. The brain is made of many different regions which all have specific jobs they carry out. The brain is divided into two separate hemispheres or halves. The complete surgical removal or disconnection of one half of the brain due to uncontrollable seizures is called a Hemispherectomy.
In the most dramatic cases they need to remove the whole hemisphere, in more common cases though only a small part of the effected side needs to be removed. The deeper parts of the brain like the thalamus, brain stem and the basal ganglia are left untouched. They also cut the corpus callosum …show more content…

This enables the other hemisphere to make new connections and to compensate for the loss of the other hemisphere. This procedure is only done as a last minute option as it is an extreme measure. As you can imagine this procedure is not for everyone. This surgery is only considered in patients who already present with limb weakness and loss of sensation on the side opposite to where the seizures originate. In most cases this procedure is done on children who already have these weaknesses or have epilepsy caused by Rasmussen’s encephalitis or Sturge-Weber syndrome, both usually affecting one hemisphere. There are some disease where the symptoms cause severe epilepsy in one half of the brain, this makes them treatable by a hemispherectomy. Rasmussen’s Encephalitis is a rare disease with symptoms of childhood onset of uncontrollable seizures, paralysis on one side of the body, vision starts to decrease, and loss of mental function. Sturge-weber syndrome is characterized by a birthmark on the face. Patients with this disease often present with glaucoma, seizures, and mental delays. A hemispherectomy however, is a rare occurrence with Sturge-weber patients as drug therapy often works

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