Surgery may help living seizure free

Brain surgery may produce a seizure-free life for some.

The question: Many people can keep epilepsy in check by taking medication, but others have seizures that drugs can't control. Might surgery to remove the area of the brain causing the seizures help people with intractable epilepsy?

This study: Involved 399 people who had epilepsy surgery after having had seizures for an average of 20 years. Six months after surgery, 81 percent of the participants were seizure-free or nearly so; after 10 years, 72 percent rarely if ever had seizures. People aged 18 to 40 had better results than other people. Those whose surgery involved the temporal lobe fared better than those who had surgery on other regions of the brain.

Who may be affected by these findings? People with epilepsy, which affects about 3 million Americans. The authors report that as many as 40 percent of epileptics have seizures that cannot be controlled solely by medication.

Caveats: Not all people with epilepsy are good candidates for surgery. Results may vary depending on the expertise of the surgeon.