Your M Health Fairview MINCEP® Epilepsy Care team includes epileptologists, specially trained neurologists who focus on epilepsy and other seizure disorders, plus psychologists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurse clinicians, pharmacists, neurologists, and neurosurgeons who are recognized nationally for their clinical research and innovative care. The MINCEP Epilepsy Care program has been designated a Level 4 Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Center in recognition of providing the highest level of complex evaluation, monitoring, and treatment.

Corpus callostomy may be an option for you if presurgical testing shows you have multiple types of seizures, including disabling drop seizures that cause violent falls, and if your seizures are generalized – that is, they involve the entire brain rather than arising from a specific, identifiable area. Corpus callostomy cannot cure seizures, but it can reduce their frequency.

Unlike other brain surgeries for treatment of seizures, surgeons do not remove any brain tissue in this procedure. Instead, they cut the corpus callosum to interrupt the ability of the seizures to spread throughout the brain. Usually neurosurgeons cut the front two-thirds of the nerve bundle, which is called a partial callostomy. If that does not lead to improvement over time, they may cut the remaining one third at a later time (complete callostomy).

Corpus callostomy is done less frequently now because of improvement in anti-seizure medications and the availability of vagal nerve stimulation, which is intended to disrupt seizures using electrical stimulation to the vagus nerve. However, corpus callostomy can be highly effective. Frequency of seizures is reduced by 70 to 80 percent after partial callostomy and 80 to 90 percent after complete callostomy.