[News] NY Times article about brain surgery

[Nakamova]

Article mentions a recent study that suggests that it is better do surgery sooner rather than later:

a randomized, controlled trial suggests that surgery as soon as possible after the failure of two antiepileptic drugs is a significantly better approach than continued medical care.

Full article at the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/h...pilepsy-gains-urgency-in-trial.html?src=rechp

 

[Kaitybugsmom]

Very interesting article. I find those numbers astounding! Thanks for sharing.

 

[epileric]

It is interesting but if you read the abstract of the study (which they link to) you'll see that all the patients had mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and it was part of the temporal lobe that was removed.

The thing about how news stories cover medical issues is that they are either fantastic for all or awful for all. In doing this the story refers to "epilepsy" but details like the cause/type of the subjects epilepsy seem to be overlooked unless you read the abstract. My seizures are thought to be caused by a lesion on the hypothalamus of my brain so no matter how good the statistics in this story I would still be reluctant to think it would be appropriate for my seizures. That's not to say it's not a great discovery for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy though.

 

[Meetz1064]

Wow, if

this were true for all types of epilepsy, I'd actually be truly scared. Think about all the little kids who are diagnosed, and fail with the use of two meds within a short period of time. *scratching head* I think that perhaps some more thought needs to be given to the statement....

 

[Nakamova]

I agree, the devil is in the details. But it's still a significant study in terms of gauging when surgery might be appropriate (for those who fit the given parameters).