ASU and Mayo Clinic aim to improve surgeries for those with epilepsy

Thanks to a research grant, Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic are teaming up to help those who suffer from seizures.

About three million people in the United States have epilepsy and not all of them can be treated with medication. For those who don’t respond to prescriptions, surgeries may be needed for symptoms to improve.

“The idea is to identify the region of the brain that causes the issues and then to remove that part of the brain,” said Gregory Raupp, foundation professor in chemical engineering at ASU.

Raupp explained that the process can be very difficult for surgeons and can sometimes result in patient death. That is why he is teaming with Dr. Greg Worrell from Mayo Clinic to create a high resolution image. By creating this image of the brain, the goal is to give surgeons a better map of the brain, which may make it easier to identify and remove epileptic tissue.

“It’s a brain mapping technology that can give [surgeons] the information they need in a very rapid fashion,” Raupp added.

He also believes this technology will make surgery less risky and might help doctors learn more about what causes seizures. Both ASU and Mayo Clinic have pledged $2.7 million for this project and two others. The other projects include improving feedback of upper limb prosthetics and research of an alternative method of X-ray imaging.