State-of-the-art surgical robot transforms epilepsy treatment at AHN

After living with debilitating seizures for nearly a decade, a man from Crafton has a new lease on life, thanks to the innovative technology at Allegheny General Hospital that helps to cure epilepsy.

For Daniel Lee, there are certain things in life he’ll never take for granted.

“It’s honestly nice to be able to drive again. It really bugged me that I had to ask everyone for rides,” Lee said.

It’s something he voluntarily gave up years ago after he was diagnosed with epilepsy in his second year of college which led to a car crash, which changed the trajectory of his life.

“Come to find out, I had a seizure as I was driving. That was extremely frightening because if I would have had that on the highway, oh my gosh…” Lee said.

“He would lose his vision as he was having seizures, so very bad seizures, no longer controlled with medicines,” said Dr. Alexander Whiting, the director of epilepsy surgery at the Allegheny Health Network Neuroscience Institute.

The CDC reports of the 3.4 million Americans with epilepsy, up to a third of them are resistant to seizure medications, and Lee was one of them until two years ago when he walked into the Neuroscience Institute at Allegheny General Hospital. From the time he had surgery…

“No seizures. Seizure-free since the surgery in December,” Lee said.

It was all possible through ROSA, a surgical robot that uses tiny electrodes to map a person’s brain.

“So we use that robot, we find where the epilepsy is coming from, and then we have all kinds of options,” Dr. Whiting said.

It’s state-of-the-art technology that Whiting uses to implant the electrodes more precisely and less invasively, meaning the holes in the skull are much smaller and the risk of complications or infection is much less than it would have been just a few years ago.

“The clarity I have now in life…it’s just amazing,” Lee said. “It’s been amazing. I hope more people would want to try this if they are having similar issues.”

“Dan was the first patient that underwent the robotic procedure here at AHN, and he’s been a great success. We’ve also had plenty of patients since then who have been great successes,” Whiting said.

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