[Long-term EEG follow-up of 30 patients with large resections in severe extra-temporal epilepsy]

This study presents postoperative scalp EEG-findings of 30 patients operated on for drug resistant epilepsies of extratemporal origin. The primary epileptogenic area was preoperatively defined by means of stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG). The amount and the distribution of postoperatively recorded epileptiform abnormalities were compared to the seizure outcome, to the location and extent of the resection and to the preoperative SEEG results. Furthermore the relations between results of preoperative SEEG-evaluation, the location and size of the therapeutic resection, and the clinical outcome were studied. The clinical outcome does not correspond with the amount of the epileptiform abnormalities in the postoperative scalp-EEGs. In most cases the location of the persisting epileptiform discharges is related to the borders of the resection. The retrospective evaluation of the preoperative SEEG-findings with a view towards their relation to the size of the resection revealed the following result: the better the preoperative definition of the epileptogenic area in terms of location and size, and the more radical the surgical excision of the preoperatively defined primary epileptogenic area, the better the clinical seizure outcome.