Laboratory Diagnosis Center, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, China; Capital Epilepsy Therapy Center, Department of Neurosurgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing 100048, China.
Med Hypotheses. 2013 Nov;81(5):763-5. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2013.07.046. Epub 2013 Aug 12.
A large number of epileptic patients suffer from refractory epilepsy, despite optimal treatment; thus these patients require new therapeutic approaches. Focal seizure activity is typically initiated in a fixed and localized region, which subsequently spreads to neighboring regions or more distant areas. At the initial onset of a seizure, the epileptic discharge will generate a relatively high voltage in seizure focus, and the discharge subsequently spreads to other relatively low-voltage regions. However, it is unknown whether seizure can be controlled through current shunt using a conduction microelectrode to conduct the epileptic discharge with a relatively high voltage in the seizure focus outside the brain. The current therapies for epilepsy, including drugs, resective surgery and neuromodulation, focus on inhibiting abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity to control seizures; thus, the basic mechanism underlying these therapies is "inhibition". In contrast, we proposed a "conduction" mechanism, whereby a current shunt with conduction electrode is used to control seizures. To our knowledge, this therapeutic strategy has not been previously reported, and we propose that this approach might be an alternative choice for the treatment of refractory partial epilepsy in the future.
大量癫痫患者尽管接受了最佳治疗，但仍患有耐药性癫痫，因此需要新的治疗方法。局灶性癫痫发作通常起始于固定和局部的区域，随后会扩散到邻近区域或更远的区域。在癫痫发作的初始阶段，癫痫放电会在癫痫灶中产生相对较高的电压，随后放电会扩散到其他相对较低电压的区域。然而，目前尚不清楚是否可以通过电流分流使用传导微电极来控制癫痫发作，即将癫痫灶中相对较高电压的癫痫放电引导至大脑外部的相对低电压区域。目前癫痫的治疗方法，包括药物、切除术和神经调节，都集中在抑制异常过度或同步神经元活动以控制癫痫发作上；因此，这些治疗方法的基本机制是“抑制”。相比之下，我们提出了一种“传导”机制，即使用具有传导电极的电流分流来控制癫痫发作。据我们所知，这种治疗策略以前没有报道过，我们提出这种方法可能是未来治疗耐药性部分性癫痫的一种替代选择。
