Can Brain Surgery Cure Epilepsy?
Epilepsy surgery or what is commonly called brain surgery, is one of the available modalities for treating epilepsy, where the area of the brain that causes seizures is removed. This is primarily reserved for epilepsy that is poorly controlled by medication, also called drug refractory epilepsy. The first choice for the treatment of epilepsy always remains medication. In any patient with epilepsy, the underlying cause of the epilepsy drives how long the affected individual would require one or multiple medications and the duration of the disease. When the affected individual is on good doses of more than two medications, we need to always at least consider epilepsy surgery, as often the need for more than two medicines implies that the quality of life of the child or individual would be adversely impacted. By this definition many epilepsy patients would qualify for epilepsy surgery. While the thought of surgery always strikes a bit of fear, for us specialists who are very aware of what havoc uncontrolled epilepsy wrecks on the lives of patients and families not only in its unpredictability but also on the change in the quality of life and social participation, when a patient is eligible for surgery, this is often good news as there is a possibility of a cure and seizure freedom. This is true in the case of children and young people as they have a longer life ahead and thus can hopefully have a more productive life with many years ahead.
