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Latest advances in epilepsy surgery
Author(s) -
Silfvenius H.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0404.1995.tb00492.x
Subject(s) - medicine , intervention (counseling) , epilepsy , disease , risk analysis (engineering) , management science , computer science , psychiatry , pathology , engineering
Recent advances in epilepsy surgery are a result of improved methods of assessment and diagnosis, a better understanding of seizures, the possibility of surgery at a younger age and the development of new surgical techniques. These factors have led to a wider selection of candidates for epilepsy surgery and shorter treatment trials with anti‐epilepsy drugs before surgery is considered. The psychosocial indications for 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. Extra‐temporal 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% showing improvement, following successful extensive cortical excision for non‐inflammatory lesions. The beneficial psychosocial‐economic effects of epilepsy surgery are, however, seldom documented and more research is needed into methods of quantifying, in broader perspectives, the outcome of surgery.