Abstracts

Rationale: Evaluation of the long-term outcome after epilepsy surgery is important. It should take into consideration not only the seizure outcome, but also other parameters such as the social/employment status, neuropsychometric outcome, psychiatric complications if applicable.Methods: 81 adult patients(age 18 years and older)who underwent epilepsy surgery between 2002 and 2005 were included. The seizure outcome was at least 2 years for each of the selected patients. There were a total of 43 female patients. Sixty-two patients had temporal resections(either standard temporal lobectomies or selective amygdalo-hippocampectomies). The remaining 19 patients had extratemporal resections(11 frontal).Results: Mean follow-up was at least two years. Of the 81 patients, 54(66%) were seizure free at the long-term follow-up(up to four years). Fourteen patients were significantly improved, with only rare and/or non-disabling seizures. Only five patients remained either unchanged in respect to seizure outcome or got worse. Most patients were maintained on their antiepileptic medications for at least two years after the epilepsy surgery.Conclusions: Long-term seizure-free rate following resective epilepsy surgery at our center is similar to that reported in other studies. Most patients(>60%) were able to become employed or maintain it after surgery. Even longer term follow up as well as stratification according to the site of resections will be important to be determined, in addition to analyzing other factors that influence quality of life.