Epilepsy surgery shown effective for many hard-to-control cases

 

(CBS) Call it encouraging news for people with epilepsy.

A new study suggests that brain surgery is underused as a treatment for hard-to-control cases of the common seizure disorder. It showed that the surgery curbs seizures in roughly half of people who undergo it, with 52 percent of patients seizure-free five years after surgery and 47 percent seizure-free after 10 years.

The study, in which 615 people who had undergone various surgical procedures for epilepsy were followed for an average of eight years, was led by researchers at University College London's Institute of Neurology. It was published in the Oct. 15 issue of Lancet, the English medical journal.

The study doesn't quite suggest that the surgery can cure epilepsy. Among seizure-free patients, it showed, only 28 percent had stopped taking antiseizure medication altogether.  More Read