Authors' objectives:

To review the current indications, outcomes and use of epilepsy surgery in Spain. To assess present and future needs for presurgical evaluation and surgical treatment for medically refractory epilepsy. To describe diagnostic and treatment procedures and requirements for service provision.

Authors' recommendations: At the present time, good results are achieved with several techniques in selected patients, and these results are now obtained with safer procedures in presurgical evaluation and smaller risk of neurologic sequels and adverse effects. In the short term, surgery for epilepsy reduces the frequency of seizures, although this varies greatly with clinical situation and intervention type. The available long term data suggest that the results of surgery in patients with mesial temporal sclerosis, in spite of their high short term effectiveness, worsen with time. High relapse rates are observed at one year of follow-up. The measures of results have been based fundamentally on the decrease of seizure frequency after the intervention. There is little evidence of the long term effects of surgery as well as the global impact of the intervention in patients' quality of life and social integration. It is estimated that 5-15% of patients are reoperated upon.

Authors' methods: Review

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: http://www.isciii.es/aets/

Year Published: 1998

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Spain

Organisation Name: Agencia de Evaluacion de Tecnologias Sanitarias

Contact Address: Instituto de Salud "Carlos III", Calle Sinesio Delgado 6, Pabellon 4, 28029 Madrid, Spain. Tel: +34 9 1 822 2005; Fax: +34 9 1 387 7841;

Contact Name: Luis M. Sánchez Gómez

Contact Email: luism.sanchez@isciii.es

Copyright: Agencia de Evaluacion de Tecnologias Sanitarias