Emerging Treatments for Epilepsy

Electrical brain stimulation (EBS) has emerged as an effective treatment for a wide range of neurologic and psychiatric diseases. Epilepsy should benefit from systems providing biomarker discovery, disease tracking, real time analytics, and adaptive therapy. This chapter describes the advantages and limitations of current EBS systems and introduces the concept of a brain co-processor that integrates data streams from implanted and wearable devices with local and distributed computing resources. It focuses on direct EBS and recording devices. An epilepsy management system integrating wearables, next-generation brain implants and of-the-body computing resources has the potential to transform epilepsy management. An embodiment of a Next-Gen Epilepsy Management System was recently tested in canine epilepsy using an investigational Medtronic Summit System and RC + S device. The development of new epilepsy devices requires a strong multidisciplinary team with expertise spanning ethics, neurosurgery, neurology, psychiatry, neuropsychology, radiology, and engineering.