Spanish translation, adaptation, and validation of the Epilepsy Surgery Satisfaction Questionnaire-19

The effectiveness of surgery in drug-resistant epilepsies is often focused exclusively on seizure control. The Epilepsy Surgery Satisfaction Questionnaire-19 (ESSQ_19), developed in 2020, is a reliable tool for assessing the level of satisfaction of patients undergoing surgery. We aimed to perform a Spanish translation, adaptation, and validation of the ESSQ_19 questionnaire.

This was a prospective multicenter study (five Spanish-speaking countries) including an international cohort of adult patients who underwent epilepsy surgery at least 1 year prior to participation. We followed a translation and back-translation methodology to obtain the Spanish version of the questionnaire (ESP-ESSQ_19). For validation, internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) and test-retest reliability at 6 months were assessed, and psychometric properties were measured by correlating them with parallel aspects using validated questionnaires.

One hundred fifty patients were included (59.3% women; mean age = 39.3 ± 13 years, interquartile range [IQR] = 28-49 years), of whom 94 completed the baseline and follow-up questionnaires, with a median time since surgery of 3 (IQR = 1-7) years. Temporal lobe epilepsy was the most common (n = 112, 77.8%), as was structural etiology (n = 139, 95.2%). At inclusion, 101 patients (68.7%) had been seizure-free for ≥1 year. The ESP-ESSQ_19 questionnaire showed an internal consistency index of .88-.95 for all domains and a test-retest reliability of .91 (95% confidence interval = .87-.94). Significant correlation coefficients were observed between the ESP-ESSQ_19 questionnaire and all validated questionnaires used.

The ESP-ESSQ_19 questionnaire is a Spanish-language instrument useful for assessing patient satisfaction after epilepsy surgery, with adequate psychometric properties that allow its use in clinical practice and in research.