SEATTLE—Nearly 70% of patients with medically intractable epilepsy were seizure-free five years after undergoing standard temporal lobectomy or selective amygdalohippocampectomy (SAH), according to research presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the American Epilepsy Society.
Yvette Marquez, MD, from the University of Southern California (USC), and colleagues reviewed data from 131 patients with medically intractable temporal lobe epilepsy who underwent standard temporal lobectomy or SAH between 2004 and 2013 at the Los Angeles County–USC Medical Center and Keck Medical Center. Fifty patients who had long-term follow-up of at least five years were included in the analysis. The rate of seizure cure after surgical intervention was categorized using International League Against Epilepsy classification.
Dr. Marquez’s group found that 69.2% of patients were completely seizure-free with no auras, 11.5% of patients had one to three seizure days per year with or without auras, and 19.2% of patients had one to four seizure days per year or a 50% seizure reduction per year with or without auras. Favorable seizure outcomes in the clinical setting were defined as having at least a 50% reduction in seizures postoperatively. No deaths secondary to surgical invention were documented.
“Our experience with standard temporal lobectomy and SAH in the treatment of medically intractable epilepsy has been a favorable one,” stated the researchers. “Moreover, the overall seizure burden decreased dramatically at five years postsurgery for all 50 patients who underwent surgical intervention. It remains clear that standard temporal lobectomy or SAH is a safe and well-tolerated primary or adjunctive treatment in the surgical management of epilepsy.”
—Colby Stong