Deep brain stimulation for the treatment of epilepsy

During the last decade, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been used to treat several neurologic disorders, including epilepsy. Promising results have been reported with stimulation in different brain regions. At present however, several issues remain unanswered. As an example, it is still unclear whether particular seizure types and syndromes should be treated with DBS in different targets or with different stimulation parameters. In addition, clinical, electrophysiological and anatomical features capable of predicting a good postoperative outcome are still unknown. We review the published literature on DBS, cortical and cerebellar stimulation for the treatment of epilepsy focusing predominantly on the rationale and clinical outcome in each target.