Ann Rehabil Med.  2011 Aug;35(4):579-582. 10.5535/arm.2011.35.4.579.

Suppression of Seizure by Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in an Epileptic Patient: A Case Report

• Yook SW
• Park SH
• Seo JH
• Kim SJ
• Ko MH

• KMID: 1971727
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5535/arm.2011.35.4.579

Abstract

Epilepsy is an intractable disease, though many treatment modalities have been developed. Recently, noninvasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which can change brain excitability, was introduced and has been applied for therapeutic purposes regarding epilepsy. A suppression of seizures was experienced by cathodal tDCS in a medication refractory pediatric epileptic patient. The patient was an 11-year-old female who had focal cortical dysplasia of the cerebral hemisphere. The patient was treated with antiepileptic drugs but the mean seizure frequency was still eight episodes per month. The tDCS cathode was placed at the midpoint of P4 and T4 in the 10-20 EEG system where the abnormal wave was observed on a sleep EEG. Two mA of tDCS was applied 20 minutes a day, five days a week for two weeks. During a two-month period after treatment termination, only six seizure attacks occurred, and the duration of each seizure episode also decreased. tDCS was applied under the same conditions for another two weeks. For two months after the second treatment session, only one seizure attack occurred, and it showed great improvement compared to the eight seizure attacks per month before the tDCS treatment. The medications were not changed, and there were no notable side effects that were caused by tDCS.

Keyword

Seizure; Transcranial direct current; Cathodal stimulation

MeSH Terms

Anticonvulsants
Brain
Cerebrum
Child
Electrodes
Electroencephalography
Epilepsy
Female
Humans
Malformations of Cortical Development
Seizures
Anticonvulsants

Figure

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  Fig. 1 MRI T2-weighted image shows cortical dysplasia in both sylvian area (arrow).

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  Fig. 2 EEG findings. Spikes on the right temporoparietal area (arrow) and slow waves on the right hemisphere (circle).

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  Fig. 3 Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) site. We applied cathode electrode on midpoint between P4 and T4 area and anode electrode on left supraorbital area. The stimulation intensity was 2 mA and the duration was 20 minutes.

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