Predicting seizure freedom after epilepsy surgery, a challenge in clinical practice

The objective of this study was to compare the accuracy of clinical judgment in predicting seizure outcome after resective epilepsy surgery relative to two recently published statistical tools [the Epilepsy Surgery Nomogram (ESN) and the modified Seizure-Freedom score (m-SFS)].

Details of presurgical evaluations of 20 patients who underwent epilepsy surgery were presented to 20 epilepsy experts. The final surgical treatment was also disclosed. The clinicians were asked to predict the likelihood of a good outcome (Engel 1) at 2 and 5 years in each case. The ESN and the m-SFS predictions were calculated with the data provided to the clinicians. The discriminative ability of clinical judgment, ESN, and m-SFS was assessed by calculating a concordance index (C-index). Expert opinion, the m-SFS and the ESN performances were compared using a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

The mean age at surgery was 29 years (standard deviation [SD] = 14); 40% were male; 70% were right-handed, and thirteen (65%) had an Engel outcome 1 at 2 and 5 years. The mean C-index for the mean physician's prediction was 0.478 with a variance of 0.012. The ESN had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.528 and 0.533 for the 2-year and 5-year predictions in comparison with the clinicians' predictions that was 0.476, and 0.466, respectively. For the m-SFS, the AUC at 2 years and 5 years was 0.539 and 0.539, respectively. No statistical difference was noted between the ESN and the clinicians or between m-SFS and the ESN, but there is a moderate statistical difference favoring the m-SFS to the clinicians (p 0.0960 and 0.0514, for 2 and 5 years).

Clinical judgment was not superior to the ESN nor to the m-SFS. Together with the interphysician's prediction variability, our findings reinforce the need for better tools to predict postoperative outcomes.