Healthy Living: Laser Ablation for Epilepsy

More than 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy.

Medication controls the onset of seizures and others need major surgery.

For some, laser ablation is the solution, but there have been no guidelines for doctors to determine how much ablation is just enough to be effective.

Now, neurosurgeons are getting closer to having answers.

The overall rate of patients who were seizure-free after laser ablation across the 11 study centers was 58%.

Doctor Wu says when looking only at the procedures that targeted the optimal locations, that rate was significantly higher.

Surgical success rates are around 80%.