A state of the art Epilepsy Care Unit has been inaugurated at the Voluntary Health Services (VHS) Medical Centre in Chennai. Named Vinothan Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Centre, the unit would offer counseling facilities for patients suffering from epilepsy. An advanced brain imaging scan equipment installed at the centre will help the doctors to regularly monitor the progress of patients.

The centre has appointed a team of neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuropsychiatries, neuro-cardiologists, specialized nurses, counselors and therapists, who would work as a team to analyze the patients and suggest the necessary course of treatment to be followed. The centre has set up all the necessary facilities for both inpatient and outpatient epilepsy patients, one among the best of its kind infrastructure in the city, according to Dr. E.S.Krishnamurthy, Neuropsychiatrist at Vinothan Comprehensive Epilepsy Care Centre.

He noted that about five to ten per thousand people in the country suffer from epilepsy, a neurological problem causing injury to brain, and often causing even death. In most of the cases, the disease, causing severe memory loss, changes in behavior and other functions, affects the temporal lobes in the brain. Many people in our society regards refractive epilepsy patients as people with mental illness, and about 80 per cent of the disease can be cured with early detection and proper treatment, said Dr. Krishnamurthy.

The VHS Medical Centre, started in 1958 by Prof.K.S.Sanjivi, has a neurology department functioning since 1965, headed by Prof. Krishnamoorthy Srinivas. The department has been treating patients suffering from epilepsy and dementia, and conducts various programmes to train doctors and create awareness among the public on neurological diseases.