Hemispherectomy is a surgical procedure involving the removal of “a cerebral hemisphere, including the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes while leaving intact parts of the thalamus and basal ganglia”. A hemispherectomy may be performed as a treatment for severe seizure disorders, fatal tumors, hemiplegia, and Rasmussen encephalitis. The procedure is usually reserved as a life-saving measure or may be employed to improve the life of a child with intractable seizures resulting from unilateral brain dysfunction.
Surgical removal of one hemisphere of the brain; an operation sometimes used to treat severe brain diseases such as refractory epilepsy.