Bulletin No. 2, 2015

High Frequency Oscillations Technology Increases Effectiveness of Complex Epilepsy Surgery A s tudy conduc ted by the Facult y of Medicine reveals that in complex epilepsy surgery, combining intracranial electroencephalography (EEG) and high frequency oscillations (HFOs) technology can accurately determine the focal seizure origin and resection area, thereby increasing the surgical effectiveness. The Fa cu l t y p i onee red t he us e of combined intracranial EEG monitoring and the newly developed HFOs technology in 2012. The sophisticated method collects and analyses electrical signals between 80 and 500Hz at the beginning of a seizure. Findings indicated that it greatly increases the accuracy and effectiveness of complex epilepsy surgery. Up till now, the method has been applied to seven patients suffering from epilepsy with high complexity. Operations have been carried out based on the investigation results, among which 71.4% resulted in a good surgical outcome, achieving an increase of 30% compared with 45.5% when the technology was not used. Artery Embolization to Relieve Symptoms of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Led by Prof. Simon Chun-ho Yu (2nd left), chairman of the Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, a research team initiated in 2014 a clinical study on prostatic artery embolization (PAE) which involves the embolization of the prostatic arteries using microspheres of 100 to 300 micron i n d i ame te r t hr ough supe r s e l e c t i ve catheterization of the arteries under X-ray control. Embolization leads to ischemic necrosis and volume reduction of the prostate. As a result, obstruction to urine outflow from the urinary bladder is relieved. The new treatment was put into clinical trial on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) beginning in June 2015. The preliminary result is encouraging. 90% of the patients could pass urine in two weeks after the treatment. News in Brief 39