Considerations on the principles of surgical treatment of partial epilepsy

Some considerations on the principles of surgical treatment of partial epilepsy are prompted by the still relatively high number of unsatisfactory surgical results. The fundamental principle of surgical treatment, based on the view that partial epilepsy is due to the hyperactivity of given neuronal aggregates consequent to a cerebral lesion (the lesional-functional epileptogenic complex), is still regarded as satisfactory. The present concept of the lesional-functional epileptogenic complex and the means to topographically locate and delimit it are illustrated and discussed. Surgical failures are ascribed mainly to the difficulty in reaching a complete and detailed spatial definition, and then a complete removal, of the epileptogenic complex.