[Neurosurgical therapy of epilepsy]

We are witnessing a renaissance of the surgical treatment of epilepsy, with renewed interest in the classic procedures and development of new ones such as selective amygdalohippocampectomy. Surgery is being increasingly used in the treatment of medically intractable seizures. Exact presurgical evaluation, with definition of the focus, is of the utmost importance and good results are largely dependent on case selection for surgical therapy. The various therapeutic options such as temporal lobectomy, selective amygdalohippocampectomy, extratemporal cortical resections, hemispherectomy and corpus callosotomy are described and the risks and benefits of surgery discussed. Selective amygdalohippocampectomy, anterior temporal lobectomy and hemispherectomy yield very rewarding results as regards seizure control, while corpus callosotomies frequently reduce the number and severity of generalized seizures.