Abstracts

Rationale: JME (juvenile myoclonic epilepsy) counts 10% in the adult epilepsy population; however, its misdiagnosis still remains as a problem leading to its treatment intractable. In Japan, because of the lack of numbers of adult epileptologist, many adult with epilepsy are treated by neurosurgeons; neurosurgeons are situated in the ‘neurology generalist'. To clarify this problem, we have reviewed at our JME patient. Methods: Top author's home institution, where the neurosurgery out-patient clinic as well as referral epilepsy out-patient specialized in epilepsy surgery is on-going, was subjected to review. Results: 11 cases of JMEs were found in our out-patient. Among them, five of them were referral from other neurosurgeons. Only 2 cases were precisely diagnosed as JME; both of them were referred from Japan board-certified epilepsy specialist. In 8 cases, some medical intervention was required for the follow up. Conclusions: The current problem lies in ‘who is treating adult-epilepsy patient in Japan?' We used to owe a lot to the pediatricians. An ongoing nationwide project to unite medical institutions and clinics for people with epilepsy will help to solve this problem, by clarifying to the people where they can receive proper epilepsy treatment. But in addition, the entire Japanese neurosurgeons have to be aware of this clinical entity, if we keep in relation with people with epilepsy so far.