Seizure control as an indicator of therapeutic usefulness

Seizure control, in addition to quality of life, is an important outcome af ter epilepsy surgery. However, seizure measurement is not straightforward. We explore some important difficulties in obtaining unbiased, reliable esti mates of seizure frequency, and discuss aspects of data analysis as it pert ains to validity and clinical meaningfulness. As seizure severity is an int egral component of seizure outcome assessment, we discuss aspects of measur ement of this outcome. Suggestions for improving validity are offered, base d on the literature and on methodological common sense. Finally, we look at the Canadian perspective and the potential for adopting methodology that a llows for data pooling and for more powerful analyses.