A boy with severe epilepsy has become the first patient in the world to test a new device implanted in his skull to control seizures.
A neurostimulator that sends electrical signals deep into Oran Knowlson’s brain has reduced his daily seizures by 80%.
His mother Justine told the BBC he was happier and had a “much better quality of life”.
Oran, from Somerset, was diagnosed with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a treatment-resistant form of epilepsy, when he was three.
Since then, he had several seizures a day, ranging from two dozen to hundreds.
When we first spoke to Oran’s mother last fall, before the surgery, she described how Oran’s epilepsy had controlled his life: “It robbed him of his entire childhood.”
She told us that Oran had various seizures, including ones where he fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably and lost consciousness.
She stated that at times he stopped breathing and required immediate treatment to resuscitate him.
Oran has autism and ADHD, but Justine says his epilepsy is by far the most difficult problem: “I had a pretty bright three-year-old, and within a few months of his seizures starting, he quickly got worse and lost a lot of skills. .”
Amber Therapeutics, a British startup, makes the neurotransmitter Picostim.
Epileptic seizures are caused by aberrant bursts of electrical activity in the brain.
The operation, which lasted approximately eight hours, took place in October 2023.
The team, led by consultant pediatric neurosurgeon Martin Tisdall, placed two electrodes deep into Oran’s brain and eventually reached the thalamus, a vital relay station for neuronal information.
The error tolerance for lead placement was less than a millimeter.
The ends of the lines were connected to a neurostimulator, a 3.5 cm square, 0.6 cm thick device that was inserted into the gap in Oran’s skull where the bone had been removed.
The neurostimulator was then inserted into the skull to anchor it in place.
