Psychosocial outcome after extratemporal epilepsy surgery: a prospective clinical study

The purpose of this prospective clinical study was to examine the short- and long-term psychosocial outcomes of a consecutive series of patients who underwent extratemporal lobe resection due to medically-refractory epilepsy.

The sample consisted of 23 consecutive patients and all patients completed a questionnaire assessing especially psychosocial outcome 6 months and 2 years after surgery. Results obtained at short- and long-term follow-ups were compared to baseline. Furthermore, the impact of seizure freedom on the psychosocial outcome was sought.

The results suggested that, psychosocial outcome was improved after surgery compared to preoperative status regardless of seizure status. At long-term follow-up, significant improvements were found in social and psychological variables (p < 0.05). Levels of side effects from medication were high at long-term compared to baseline (p = 0.003). Seizure free patients showed better psychosocial outcome than those who had seizure during the postoperative period, however; only the "impact of epilepsy" scale showed significant improvement at 6 months after surgery (p = 0.02).

These results provide evidence that surgery caused appreciable improvements in psychosocial well-being, however; seizure freedom is not key to improving the psychosocial life of patients who have undergone extratemporal lobe epilepsy surgery.