Stamen and his epileptic seizures

25. October 2023

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Stamen is a bright boy. However, his development was severely slowed down by severe epilepsy. He suffered two to three seizures a day. The medication only helped to a limited extent. This was because the trigger for the epilepsy was in his brain: a tumour.

Stamen was seven when it became clear: His tumour could be surgically removed. But he was in a delicate position. In Bulgaria, where Stamen comes from, the operation would not have been possible. So he travelled to Basel with his family to be treated by our highly specialised paediatric neurosurgery team.

To ensure that as much of Stamen's tumour as possible could be safely removed, our team opted for special monitoring of brain activity. Normally, electrodes are placed on the skull to monitor brain activity. For this operation, however, a highly precise live image was required at all times. The surgeons therefore positioned such electrodes directly on the exposed brain. This way, they knew whether to resect the tumour alone or also the surrounding tissue - so that the procedure would free Stamen from epileptic seizures for as long as possible.

Everything went well for Stamen. The core of the problem has been completely eliminated. Today, several months after the operation, he is free of symptoms. He has never had another epileptic seizure.