LATEST ADVANCES IN EPILEPSY SURGERY

Recent advances in epilepsy surgery are a result of improved methods o f assessment and diagnosis, a better understanding of seizures, the po ssibility of surgery at a younger age and the development of new surgi cal techniques. These factors have led to a wider selection of candida tes for epilepsy surgery and shorter treatment trials with anti-epilep sy drugs before surgery is considered. The psychosocial indications fo r surgery, however, are often not examined thoroughly enough. Epilepsy surgery shows the best results following temporal lobe excision, with 68% of patients becoming seizure-free and 24% showing an improvement. Extratemporal surgery results in 45% of patients seizure-free and 35% improved. The results of epilepsy surgery in children are similar to those of adults, with 67% of children becoming seizure-free and 21% sh owing improvement, following successful extensive cortical excision fo r non-inflammatory lesions. The beneficial psychosocial-economic effec ts of epilepsy surgery are, however, seldom documented and more resear ch is needed into methods of quantifying, in broader perspectives, the outcome of surgery.