Epilepsy is the most common serious brain disorder in the world. It affects all ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic classes. Patients and their families suffer an enormous physical, psychological, and social burden that is often related to misunderstanding, fear, and stigma. Likewise, the surgical treatment of epilepsy also suffers from a misunderstanding of its application, safety and potentia...

PURPOSE Resection of the seizure focus leads to sustained seizure-freedom in intractable focal epilepsy in up to 80% of selected populations. However, surgery fails to help in a considerable proportion of patients. Reevaluation and reoperation may be considered in a selected group of patients with an unfavorable postsurgical outcome. Here, we reviewed 15 case series on reoperation after failed ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the possible influence of risk factors on seizure outcome after surgery for drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS). METHODS This retrospective study recruited patients with drug-resistant MTS-TLE who underwent epilepsy surgery at Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and were followed for a minimum of 1 year. Patients had bee...

Depression has become one of the most commonly reported and studied psychiatric co-morbidities of epilepsy. While different forms of depression have been specifi cally related to epilepsy, this paper focuses on neurobiological and psychosocial factors that predict major depression in patients with intractable focal epilepsy. It then examines how these factors may affect patient trajectories and...

Commentary Localization of epileptic brain is the cornerstone of successful epilepsy surgery. In the final decades of the 20th century, advances in neuroimaging led to significant improvements in epilepsy surgery efficacy (1). Unfortunately, the gains in epilepsy surgery efficacy have reached a plateau. In particular , patients with normal MRI, diffuse or multifocal imaging abnormalities remain...

This review summarises exciting recent and forthcoming advances that will impact on the surgical management of epilepsy in the near future. This does not cover the current accepted diagnostic methodologies or surgical treatments that are routinely practiced today. The content of this review was derived from a PubMed literature search, using the key words 'Epilepsy Surgery', 'Neuromodulation', '...

In order for any epilepsy surgery programme to be effective there has to be a critical mass of staff with the necessary expertise in order to carry out the appropriate evaluations in patients in the pre-operative period, and the post-operative follow up. In both adults and children, following pre-operative evaluation it is essential that the information acquired is critically appraised in a mul...

Hypothalamic hamartoma (HH) and gelastic epilepsy is a rare but well-recognized drug-resistant epileptic syndrome of early life. Cognitive impairments and behavior disturbance occur commonly in patients with HH and gelastic epilepsy, especially those with progressive seizure and EEG evolution during early childhood. Intellectual disability, autism, and episodic rage are commonly encountered in ...

OBJECTIVES To examine prospectively the frequency and nature of psychiatric symptoms seen in patients during the first three months after temporal lobe surgery for chronic intractable epilepsy and in addition to study the relation between presurgical mental state, laterality of surgery, and postsurgical seizure and psychiatric course. METHOD A consecutive series of 60 patients being assessed ...