Surgical treatment of epilepsy in the comprehensive care program: advantages and considerations

To properly establish the surgical treatment of epilepsy in the comprehensive care program, we planned a surgical strategy mainly for a temporal lobe epilepsy and have performed 60 temporal lobectomies. The surgical candidates were selected from 142 patients who met the initial criteria, and passed the initial evaluation for surgical intervention. Forty-five patients had long-term intracranial EEG recording, and circumscribed organic lesions were disclosed in 27 patients by neuroimaging techniques. The outcome of 23 patients who were followed for 2 years postoperatively was complete freedom from complex partial seizures in 17 patients (74%) and an increase in full employment from 2 to 10 patients. Despite the possible surgical complications, including detrimental effects on the higher cerebral functions, it is essential that the surgical treatment of epilepsy should be established as a part of the comprehensive care program. Our experiences and analyses of the state of the art in surgical intervention also suggest that surgical indications for more intractable patients whose social adjustment is less hopeful should be established and the surgical care system for these patients should also be planned. Furthermore, some patients may be free from recurrent seizures postoperatively, but still have difficulties in social rehabilitation. The problems for such patients remain unsolved.