Another Good Reason to Consider Surgical Treatment for Epilepsy More Often and Sooner

Approximately 3 million people in the United States have epilepsy,¹ and it is estimated that at least one-third of them continue to have seizures despite adequate treatment with antiseizure medication.² Unpublished data from the National Association of Epilepsy Centers indicate that somewhere between 2000 and 3000 people receive surgical treatment for epilepsy in the United States annually (R. Gumnit, MD, written communication, 2010), most of whom have temporal lobe epilepsy. It is safe to conclude, therefore, that less than 1% of patients in the United States with medically refractory epilepsy are ever referred to an epilepsy center to determine whether they might be candidates for surgical treatment.