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September 2002
Abstract presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society

Anthony Murro, Yong Park, David Greene, Joseph Smith, Patty Ray, Don King, David Loring, Ki Lee.

This case report from multicenter study describes a significant reduction of seizure duration using a system that automatically detects seizures and delivers a brief electrical pulse. Intrancranial electrodes were implanted in a 38 year old woman for epilepsy surgery evaluation. Electrical pulses were delivered to the brain using the intracranial electrodes. We obtained 21 seizures without electrical brain stimulation; these seizures occurred an average of 37 hours from the start of the trial. We obtained 11 seizures with electrical brain stimulation; these seizures occurred an average of 39 hours after the start of the trial. Mean seizure duration without electrical brain stimulation was 38 seconds, range 12 - 137 seconds. Mean seizure duration with electrical brain stimulation was 11 seconds, range 3-15 seconds. The difference in seizure duration was significant (log transformed time measurements, p<.01, student t test). The mean time interval between electrical stimulation and seizure termination was 2 seconds, range 0 - 6 seconds. These findings suggest that seizures can be automatically detected and terminated with electrical brain stimulation.