Surgical Treatment for Epilepsy Should Not be Viewed As a Last Resort, Study Shows
*Most patients wait until it’s too late to prevent serious disability*
While the thought of any type of surgery can be disconcerting, the thought of brain surgery can be downright frightening. But for people with a particular form of epilepsy, surgical intervention can literally be life-restoring.
Yet among people who suffer from what’s known as medically intractable epilepsy, in which seizures are resistant to drugs, only a small fraction will seek surgery, seeing it only as a last resort. As a result, they continue to suffer seizures year after year. They can’t drive, they can’t work and they lose cognitive function as the years pass. Premature death is not uncommon. (more…)