Some Patients May Be Surgical Candidates Soon After Failing Drugs
March 6, 2012 -- Brain surgery is generally considered a last resort for some epilepsy patients whose seizures are not controlled with drugs, but performing surgery earlier may prevent years of suffering, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Only a small percentage of patients with seizures that cant be controlled by medications are ever referred to an epilepsy center that offers surgery. Those who are referred have often had uncontrolled seizures for several decades.
In the new multi-center study, almost all patients who had surgery much earlier in the course of their disease were seizure-free two years later, while none of the patients who did not have surgery were free of seizures.
The study was small, but researchers say the findings confirm that early surgical intervention offers certain epilepsy patients the best opportunity to avoid a lifetime of disability.
There is a misconception that epilepsy is not serious enough to warrant brain surgery, but it is, says researcher Jerome Engel Jr., MD, PhD, of the UCLA Seizure Disorder Center. People die from this disorder. Yet, less than 1% of people with drug-resistant epilepsy are ever referred to epilepsy centers.
Nearly 3 million Americans and 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and 20% to 40% of them do not achieve seizure control with drugs alone.
In the new study, 38 patients with a form of epilepsy that is often resistant to anti-epileptic drugs were either assigned to continue drug treatments alone or to a treatment regimen that included surgery and drugs.
The surgery involved the removal of an abnormally functioning section of the brain about the size of a walnut, Engel tells WebMD.
During the second year of follow-up, none of the 23 patients treated with drugs alone were free of seizures, but 11 of 15 patients (73%) treated with surgery and drugs were seizure free.
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Surgery Often an Overlooked Option for Epilepsy